[X] My Assistant

[jmknapp]

Here's an animation of the Jan. 15 flyby:

T10 flyby animation, 2.3MB AVI

A list of some of the activities:

CIRS_020TI_FIRNADIRCOMPINT_01

Obtain information on trace constituents in Titan's stratosphere. Integrate on limb at two positions POINTING: Obtain information on CO, HCN, CH4. Integrate on disk at airmass 1.5-2.0. POINTING: -y to Titan, x away from sun.


ISS_020TI_MONITORNA001_PRIME
NAC Monitoring of Surface and Atmosphere
monitoring for surface/atmosphere changes; attempt to see surface color variations; monitor limb hazes, 1-3 km/px

MAG_020TI_MAGTITAN001_PRIME
T10 Flyby
T 10 is an interesting upstream encounter with a minimum distance of 2071 km which reaches into the middle ionosphere. Together with T 8 and T 6 it allows to reconstruct the upstream equatorial ionospheric pile-up region. Since it repeats T 8 and T 6 to some extent the priority is smaller than T 6 and T 8, but still in the range of grade one priority.

NOTE: - continuous data rate of 1976bps (32vps).


MIMI_020TI_T10INBND001_ISS
MAPS 020TI(T10) Campaign
Part of 020TI(T10) MAPS Campaign. Investigate micro-scale and near aspects of the Titan interaction by observing during about one hour period around an encounter. With -Y pointed toward Titan, when within 30 minutes of the targeted flyby, optimize secondary axis for corotation flow as close to the S/C -X, +/- Z plane as works with the other constraints on pointing. Also, measure Titan exosphere/magnetosphere interaction by imaging in ENA with INCA (when sun is not in INCA FOV).

RPWS_020TI_TIINTRMED001_PRIME
Titan Interaction - Intermediate
Study the interaction of the magnetosphere with Titan at intermediate
distances for evidence of ion pickup, radio emissions, density profiles,
and the general wave environment. Prefer Langmuir probe within 90
degrees of plasma ram.

UVIS_020SU_USUNOCC001_PRIME
USUN_T10
This is a Titan solar occulation with both ingress and egress.
1) Turn from waypoint to Titan. EUV solar occultation port centered on sun at start time: 2006-015T11:15:00. +X to Titan Center
2) Take data from start time: 2006-015T11:15:00 until 1st activity stop: 2006-015T11:48:00. 3) Take data from 2nd activity start: 2006-015T11:53:00 until activity end time: 2006-015T12:27:00.
3) Turn to waypoint and reset pointing.

MP_020TI_FLYBYT010_NA
2006JAN15 11:41 UTC - 2006JAN15 11:41 UTC
Targeted inbound 2043 km flyby, v = 5.8 km/s, phase = 120 deg

MP_020EA_OCCTITAN020_NA
2006JAN15 11:49 UTC - 2006JAN15 12:03 UTC
Earth occulted by TITAN duration = 14 min; egress = 2006-015T12:04

MP_020SU_OCCTITAN020_NA
2006JAN15 11:49 UTC - 2006JAN15 12:03 UTC
Sun occulted by TITAN duration = 13 min; egress = 2006-015T12:03

CIRS_020TI_FIRLIMB_INTEG_01
Vertical sounding stratospheric compounds on Titan, including H2O. Integrations at 2 locations on the limb displaced vertically. POINTING: -y to Titan, z within 45 degrees of normal to limb.

ISS_020TI_AURORAE001_VIMS
WAC Nightside Imaging
search for and monitor lightning/aurora

Also stealing some of the limelight on Jan. 15, Stardust will return samples from Comet Wild to Earth.

Jan. 15 in space exploration history:

2008: First Messenger flyby of Mercury
2004: MER Spirit drives onto the surface of Mars
2001: Stardust spacecraft flys by earth
1962: Apollo Spacecraft Project Office established

all hail Google...

[Decepticon]

When does cassini look at a new hemisphere? We have had the same 2 for a while now.

[alan]

The Feb 27, Apr 30, and Jul 2, flybys ( T11, T13, T15 ) will work gradually farther east. TItan will be on the opposite side of Saturn during the July 2 flyby as it was during Ta.

[belleraphon1]

I, too, want to start seeing a new hemisphere, but one advantage to seeing the same area, over and over, is the ability to map changes in albedo patches over time.

ANOTHER reason for extending CASSINI past 2008.

Craig

[Decepticon]

I welcome additional Imaging and radar passes with open arms.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

T10 Mission Description Document (1.1 Mb PDF)

[ljk4-1]

I, too, want to start seeing a new hemisphere, but one advantage to seeing the same area, over and over, is the ability to map changes in albedo patches over time.

ANOTHER reason for extending CASSINI past 2008.

Craig

Have any surface changes on Titan been seen lately? And I mean surface changes, not clouds.

[volcanopele]

Thanks Alex. This should be an interesting encounter as we will look at the same area as Ta HIGHRESNA001 at comparable resolutions, but with better camera parameters, which should make the images less noisy. UVIS also has a solar occultation on this encounter, their first.

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

Thanks Alex.  This should be an interesting encounter as we will look at the same area as Ta HIGHRESNA001 at comparable resolutions, but with better camera parameters, which should make the images less noisy.

Is this the same observation with the VIMS ride along (i.e., T10 HIGHRESNA001_VIMS)?

As I understand it, ISS has a pretty cool Titan nightside observation (T10 NIGHTNAC002_PRIME), with very nice, long dwell time.

[volcanopele]

Is this the same observation with the VIMS ride along (i.e., T10 HIGHRESNA001_VIMS)?

As I understand it, ISS has a pretty cool Titan nightside observation (T10 NIGHTNAC002_PRIME), with very nice, long dwell time.

No, its T10 GLBMAPNLP001. The VIMS ridealong is a series of "postage stamps" across the disk as VIMS looks at a few areas (like Tortola Facula) at high resolution

[Guest_AlexBlackwell_*]

No, its T10 GLBMAPNLP001.  The VIMS ridealong is a series of "postage stamps" across the disk as VIMS looks at a few areas (like Tortola Facula) at high resolution.

OK, I went back and saw Zibi's TOST T9/T10 ISS slide presentation and now see the different footprints. Thanks.

[belleraphon1]

Have any surface changes on Titan been seen lately?  And I mean surface changes, not clouds.

None have been officially reported that I know of. I am a qualitative observer,
and lack the sophistication of those who can render clean images out of the raws.

But due to the haze, I think it is easy to see changes that are not there or miss changes that are there.

Looking forward to Ta HIGHRESNA001 just to see how improved the viewing may be now that the ISS team has more experience .....

Craig

[elakdawalla]

Volcanopele, is the ISS team planning on releasing one of those overview maps for the imaging plans for T10? There wasn't one for T9, right?

--Emily

[JRehling]

None have been officially reported that I know of.  I am a qualitative observer,
and lack the sophistication of those who can render clean images out of the raws.

But due to the haze, I think it is easy to see changes that are not there or miss changes that are there.

Looking forward to  Ta HIGHRESNA001 just to see how improved the viewing may be now that the ISS team has more experience .....

Craig

If surface changes are seen, and they are not so obvious that any rube can spot them immediately, then I expect that the release mode will be like the martian gullies: The data will be there in the raws where anyone could find it but no one will; then when the team has all the i's dotted and all the t's crossed, they'll announce it. So far, there's been no indication of that.

Many kinds of change, if it did happen, would be fairly difficult to distinguish from meteorlogical clouds or products of changed observation geometry.

Aside from possible volcanic eruptions (and we have no reason to suspect that Titan is another Io), I don't know that I would expect Titan to show much in the way of surface changes in a mere 1.5 years of spotty, and largely long-distance observations. It's clearly a place where it has rained, but most of its surface hasn't even seen clouds pass over during this 1.5 year period. And the mere presence of clouds wouldn't mean rain. And mere rain wouldn't mean surface changes that could be seen at 600 m/pix in mono-filter imagery.

I think there are three kinds of surface change we might see eventually:

1) Volcanic, but Titan probably isn't active enough that we'd "get lucky" and seen an eruption during Cassini's tenure. Earth only has a few volcanos that active. Note, though, that the midlatitude clouds on Titan have a postulated correlation with *longitude*. Potentially interesting.

2) Rain, if/when/where abundant clouds show up. Those may be happening at the south pole about now, but it could be very hard to *see* the effects from Cassini. The pavement gets wet, it dries, narrow streams fill for a short time, basins gain a smidgen of area. It would have to be a lot of rain for us to see that. And we know that nowhere else on Titan is getting more than isolated and somewhat wispy cloud cover. However, that might change as the seasons go by.

3) Global inundation if a hypothesized north polar methane cap were to melt. That would be exciting beyond anything yet seen in solar system exploration. Maybe it happens every 15 years, and Cassini will get to see "wet season" begin in the next six years. Or, maybe no such thing happens at all, and Titan's channels are, like Mars's, "ancient history".

When it comes to extended mission priorities, I think there are two distinct Titan priorities: global RADAR mapping, and long-term "weather" observations with VIMS/ISS. These goals are actually antagonistic, given that Cassini's lifespan will probably be limited by attitude-control supply. The situation differs considerably, then, from MGS at Mars. It might be important to define a long-term budget of thruster fuel that will allow several years of limited operations and then a "phenomenon observation" campaign if a major seasonal event takes place. The ideal extended mission, then, might be to perform only a few more RADAR tracks at Titan, intermittent flybys of Enceladus (maybe one of Iapetus), adopt an orbit that intersects Titan's twice at some distance, and take long-range pictures with the CB3 filter at those two points in each orbit, waiting to see if an event takes place worthy of intensive observations.

Presumably, a full cycle of Titan phenomena would appear in 15 years (assuming the alternate hemispheric seasons are similar) or even 7.5 years (if spring==autumn, climatically speaking). We should hope to have a long period of limited observations of Titan, plus "another bullet in the chamber", in terms of attitude-control, in case something happens we want to scrutinize. If the latter happens, we have the story of the century (for planetary science). If it doesn't, then a new priority in 2019 (more RADAR tracks...) could spend the "reserve" with a new mission goal. Assuming that such long timelines are feasible with austerity conservation of the craft's fuel in the meantime.

[JRehling]

A list of some of the activities:
[...]
MP_020EA_OCCTITAN020_NA
2006JAN15 11:49 UTC - 2006JAN15 12:03 UTC
Earth occulted by TITAN duration = 14 min; egress = 2006-015T12:04
[...]

Call me biased, but I like to think of this as "Cassini occulted by Titan".