[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.

[JTN]

Have more details of the extended tour been made public yet?

At the moment, I'm particularly interested in what will happen around the solar ring plane crossing in August 2009. What sort of inclination will Cassini have at this point? Are there any specific opportunities to see the shadows of satellites stretching across the rings? (I realise the latter doesn't necessarily require knowledge of the tour.)

john_s mentioned the RPX in his glog entry, but without much detail of what Cassini will be up to.

I wonder whether there will be interesting deductions to be made from the thermal properties of the ring particles as the sunlit and dark sides of the rings swap places -- we will presumably be able to look at both sides more-or-less simultaneously for the first time.