[X] My Assistant

[Decepticon]

Another flyby coming soon. Interesting observations include radar swath of Huygens landing site.

Just before CA. http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...porbs=1&brite=1

From above... http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?t...porbs=1&brite=1

I really missed VP encounter updates So I tried my best at showing the Hemisphere to be imaged during the flyby.

[volcanopele]

Some thoughts:

1) If you like cat scratches, you will like this swath. I think that much of the middle third of the swath, covering the dark region now known as Belet, will be covered in cat scratches. Much of eastern Fensal was covered by them, though the spaces between the dunes were also dark, making them more difficult to see than the ones that were on top of bright bed-ice. I suspect that the equatorial region is one giant desert (at least in Titan standards) and the dark regions are sedimentary basins where sand-sized particles have come to die and form large dune seas. Polar (and maybe temperate) dark terrains appear to be dark floored playas (as well as regions near the transitions between rocky terrain and sandy terrain in the equatorial region, like where Huygens landed). Much of the equatorial regions have been shaped mostly by aeolian erosion as well as the occasional storm (sapping and cryovolcanism may also play a role).

2) RADAR will only be using Beam 3 (best SNR of the 5 beams) when it covers the landing site so look for the swath to appear similar to the thin noodle at the east end of the Ta swath (upper right most of the 3 swath taken so far). Don't expect great detail in that view in low-res mode, but it will help the RADAR team to calibrate their theories for terrains in the rest of the swath and in other swaths.

3) Adiri could be an interesting place. From images gathered thus far, it appears to be a bright feature with lots of small dark features, similar to the region north of Fensal perhaps, with small patches of cat scratches.

[jmknapp]

Question on Cassini pointing: does the pointing of the RADAR at Titan mean that the ISS cameras are pointed in some other direction?

Or, put another way, do the ISS cameras look at the same point that the RADAR is aimed at?

Wondering if there will be any closeup ISS images...

[ugordan]

Question on Cassini pointing: does the pointing of the RADAR at Titan mean that the ISS cameras are pointed in some other direction?

Or, put another way, do the ISS cameras look at the same point that the RADAR is aimed at?

Wondering if there will be any closeup ISS images...

The HGA points along the spacecraft axis, while the optical remote sensing instruments point perpendicular to that, they're mounted on the spacecraft body and point away from it. There's no way RADAR and optical observations could be made simultaneously. Besides, the solar phase angle will be unfavorable around C/A anyway so there's no big loss.