[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

Which of Saturn's Icy satellite flybys are you most looking forward too and why?

I can't wait to see Mimas up close, I hope the flyby geometry will give us a good view of the giant crater Herchel.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Actually, the problem with VIMS is that it's a "pushbroom" imager -- unlike the ISS cameras, which take an instantaneous 2-D image -- which means that, to build up a 2-D VIMS image, you either have to keep scanning the same line with VIMS as Titan's surface rolls by underneath you (which is unacceptably slow when Cassini is still fairly far from Titan), or else (for long-range views) keep scanning that one VIMS line while actually tilting the spacecraft, which is awkward. In retrospect, it may have been a mistake not to add an optional tiltable mirror to VIMS to allow it to construct long-range 2-D images quickly and easily.

However, even where long-distance 2-micron VIMS views of Titan are concerned, they got quite a nice one at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi....jpg&type=image .