Cassini's Extended-Extended Mission, July 2010-June 2017 |
Cassini's Extended-Extended Mission, July 2010-June 2017 |
Feb 3 2010, 09:06 PM
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#76
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Newbie Group: Members Posts: 13 Joined: 28-November 05 Member No.: 587 |
Beware the ides of September....
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Feb 3 2010, 09:11 PM
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#77
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 8-February 04 From: Arabia Terra Member No.: 12 |
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Feb 3 2010, 11:09 PM
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#78
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Member Group: Members Posts: 204 Joined: 14-April 06 From: Seattle, WA Member No.: 745 |
[quote name='volcanopele' date='Feb 3 2010, 12:34 PM' post='154945']
The only sad part, you can now mark on your calenders, September 15, 2017: Oh, but think of all the sights we will see and all the cool things we will learn. Oh, boy, oh boy, oh boy! I am so looking forward to this. On to the proximal orbits! |
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Feb 3 2010, 11:17 PM
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#79
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3233 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
Quite right, there are quite a few great things before that fateful day, and besides that's not for another 7 years! We get seven more years of Cassini awesomeness, not to mention Dawn, Juno, New Horizons, and MESSENGER before the end of Cassini.
-------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Feb 3 2010, 11:29 PM
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#80
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
To put it into perspective, Cassini's mission at Saturn up until now was shorter than that. And the prospect of having Cassini live to witness Rosetta and New Horizons prime science missions... Here's hoping for that!
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Feb 4 2010, 01:57 AM
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#81
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Member Group: Members Posts: 340 Joined: 11-April 08 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 4093 |
Updated my realtime simulation with the good news! Cassini has now completed 61.8% of its mission by time and 68% by distance flown. Distance to fly to impact estimated to be 2.5 bn km w.r.t. Sun, 16.9AU. Does anybody have a SPICE kernel for the extended mission?
Also updated the full mission timeline ... it's one long page by now! I assumed that it is still XXM - SM7 that's being flown. Go Cassini! -------------------- |
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Feb 4 2010, 03:13 AM
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#82
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Senior Member Group: Moderator Posts: 3233 Joined: 11-February 04 From: Tucson, AZ Member No.: 23 |
I use ftp://naif.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/naif/CASSINI/...09248_17265.bsp
This covers the period from mid-September 2009 until the end of the mission. You definitely want to switch to this as I am sure this will affect the timings of many of the non-targeted events. -------------------- &@^^!% Jim! I'm a geologist, not a physicist!
The Gish Bar Times - A Blog all about Jupiter's Moon Io |
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Feb 4 2010, 03:31 AM
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#83
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Member Group: Members Posts: 340 Joined: 11-April 08 From: Sydney, Australia Member No.: 4093 |
Aaaah that's the one to use, thanks a lot. Must have missed the file end date. Will update the flying distances in a couple of hours. I don't think it will change encounter times, I took those from http://www.mpi-hd.mpg.de/cassini/xxm/SM-7/SM-7_all.txt ... unfortunately I'm not blessed with trajectory analysis software etc that can nicely spit out encounters. I still live in the time of state vectors and Pythagoras ... and I am NOT going to calculate all those 1400+ events manually! -------------------- |
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Feb 4 2010, 09:23 AM
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#84
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Rover Driver Group: Members Posts: 1015 Joined: 4-March 04 Member No.: 47 |
Yay! Bring on those seasonal variations!
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Feb 4 2010, 11:25 AM
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#85
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
Awesome, 7 years.
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Feb 4 2010, 01:00 PM
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#86
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Member Group: Members Posts: 813 Joined: 29-December 05 From: NE Oh, USA Member No.: 627 |
AWESOMNESS PLUS!!!!!!
Will Titan’s northern lakes start to evaporate? What methane storms accompany the seasonal changes? (Titan is my favorite… yes she is)! No, WAIT... more Enceladus plume tasting!!!!! (Enceladus is my favorite.... yes she is)! No, WAIT ... CLOSE IN passes between the rings and Saturn... (Saturn is my favorite .... yes she is)! No WAIT... ring spokes evolution over time!!! (Rings.... favorite.... )! No Wait ... tail wagging furiously Craig |
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Feb 4 2010, 01:16 PM
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#87
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Member Group: Members Posts: 125 Joined: 18-July 05 Member No.: 438 |
Fantastic news, but bittersweet for some...
Posted without further comment as I know I'm close to off-limit discussion areas... (Admins - I'll understand if you delete this post) |
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Feb 4 2010, 01:41 PM
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#88
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1372 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
Oh no....I just read they are to plunge Cassini into Saturn in 2017 !
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Feb 4 2010, 02:00 PM
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#89
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Founder Group: Chairman Posts: 14432 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
To co-incide with the exhaustion of spacecraft consumables after a 13 year study of the Saturnian system.
Nothing to be sad about - the phrase 'blaze of glory' has never been more apt. |
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Feb 4 2010, 02:23 PM
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#90
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523 |
People just have to realize orbiters doing orbital tours like this cannot last indefinitely. They use consumables that eventually have to run out and then the spacecraft orbit becomes uncontrollable. Barring hardware failures, it's still somewhat different than Mars rovers in that regard.
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