[X] My Assistant

[jsheff]

The January PSG meeting is now in progress and the tour for extended mission is scheduled to be chosen on Thursday (Feb 1). There are 13 tours being considered OF4a, PF-3, PF-4, PF-6, PF-6h9, PF-7, PF-8, PF-9, PF-10, PF-11, PF-12 & PF-13 --plus 'tweaks' on these tours e.g. there is a PF-8a, PF-9a

S-S-So ... has anybody heard anything?

- John Sheff
Cambridge, MA

[john_s]

The winner is (drum roll please) PF6h9. Officially adopted on Thursday. I haven't sifted through all the details yet, but from my parochial point of view, I know it includes seven close Enceladus flybys, so that's good. Most of the science groups (Titan, Rings, Magnetosphere, Saturn, and Icy Satellites) were pretty happy with this choice- it packs in an amazing number of science opportunities.

John.

[edstrick]

Iapetus is so battered that extra-high resolution will have rather little information to yield on global geology, at least directly, but global coverage is needed at good resolution and sun angles just to see the global geology well.

Where resolution higher than Cassini can provide (except for perhaps one tiny spot) is infrared spectral mapping for composition. Looking at steep crater walls and other topographic features to see the intimate mixing and distribution of ices and the darker materials will give a better understanding of their stratigraphic relations and transport processes and thus the geologic history of the albedo patterns and ice migrations.

Cassini won't be able to do much of that, unfortunately, even on it's fall flyby.