[X] My Assistant

[edstrick]

tallbear: "....However, the Cassin Tour will be altered in early 2006 and these opportunities may go away while others may appear.....

Uh... Say WHAT?....is this a branch to an entirely different series of encounters than the second half of the primary mission that they've been designing in (necessarily) obsessive-compulsive detail for the last decade? Did they have to retarget to make a close flyby of a Vogon Mothership? Or did they find a spinning blue telephone call-box floating in Saturn orbit? <grin!>

[volcanopele]

I guess I'll add my $0.02.

Basically, because the upper atmosphere of Titan is thicker (or at least provides more torque on the spacecraft) than expected, all flybys with a close approach altitude of 950 km will be raised, and other, more distant encounters, lowered. This will effect the tour in subtle ways, nothing too drastic, but it will be a bit of a headache because the changes do cause some differences in the timing of encounters. It is also not yet clear how such tweaks will effect non-targeted encounters (it is my understanding that the Enceladus March '08 encounter will be frozen at 100 km and the Iapetus encounter will only change by a marginal amount). This tour change is still being evaluated. the first 950 km encounter is in July '06 (T16), so there is still some time to work on these changes.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I guess I'll add my $0.02.

Basically, because the upper atmosphere of Titan is thicker (or at least provides more torque on the spacecraft) than expected, all flybys with a close approach altitude of 950 km will be raised, and other, more distant encounters, lowered.  This will effect the tour in subtle ways, nothing too drastic, but it will be a bit of a headache because the changes do cause some differences in the timing of encounters.  It is also not yet clear how such tweaks will effect non-targeted encounters (it is my understanding that the Enceladus March '08 encounter will be frozen at 100 km and the Iapetus encounter will only change by a marginal amount).  This tour change is still being evaluated.  the first 950 km encounter is in July '06 (T16), so there is still some time to work on these changes.

I chime in and make the pot $0.04

I note the Project has "tentatively" selected the T18 and T19 flyby altitudes as 960 km and 980 km, respectively, while the T20a ORS/T20b RADAR thru T25 altitudes get raised back up above 1000 km. And the next 950 km flyby after T16 is T32a INMS/T32b solar occultation.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

I chime in and make the pot $0.04

I note the Project has "tentatively" selected the T18 and T19 flyby altitudes as 960 km and 980 km, respectively, while the T20a ORS/T20b RADAR thru T25 altitudes get raised back up above 1000 km. And the next 950 km flyby after T16 is T32a INMS/T32b solar occultation.

It's been a year since I posted the message above, so I'll perform CPR ("cyber"-pulmonary resuscitation) and temporarily revive this dead thread

Today's Cassini's Significant Events Report publicly reveals the resolution of the INMS/ORS "conflict" for the T32 flyby. TOST was at an impasse, so the Project Scientist made the call, and of the two options noted above (i.e., T32a INMS/T32b solar occultation), INMS won out.

Now all that's needed is for someone on ISS or VIMS to file an emergency appeal in federal court to stay the decision pending ultimate resolution in the Supreme Court of the United States.

This post has been edited by AlexBlackwell: Dec 15 2006, 08:32 PM

[volcanopele]

Now all that's needed is for someone on ISS or VIMS to file an emergency appeal in federal court to stay the decision pending ultimate resolution in the Supreme Court of the United States.

We had nothing to do with T32 C/A. The conflict was between INMS and UVIS (solar occultation). I'm sure we have observations planned for T32, but it doesn't matter which instrument was selected for that pass.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

We had nothing to do with T32 C/A. The conflict was between INMS and UVIS (solar occultation). I'm sure we have observations planned for T32, but it doesn't matter which instrument was selected for that pass.

Oops. You're right. I meant to type UVIS instead of VIMS.