Cassini-Huygens - Cassini-Huygens Discussion

Palomar · 2004-06-11 07:44:28

Phoebes]http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_040611.html]Phoebe's dimensions

*Cool tidbit from space.com. Perspective, huh?

--Cindy

::EDIT:: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13095]This just in from spaceref.com (regarding Phoebe): "...details on the small, dark moon are coming into view at a dizzying pace. The images shown here were taken 13 hours apart..."! :band:

::EDIT 2:: Titans]http://www.saturntoday.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13094]Titan's murky skies Image taken May 23, at a distance of 13.4 million miles.

Palomar · 2004-06-12 12:47:00

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.htm … 382]*First image of Phoebe closeup posted @ spaceref.com; they're promising many more images to follow later today.

Cassini is now en route for its first upclose fly-by of Saturn itself. :up:

--Cindy

Rxke · 2004-06-13 02:32:42

Did you see the 'rotation-movie' on the NASA/Cassini site?

Whoa, those are BIG impact craters, unbelievable that Phoebe is still in one piece... Does this support the theory of certain 'stony' asteroids being mainly collections of small rocks, loosely held together by water-ice? A solid body would surely scatter upon impacts of such magnitude...

Palomar · 2004-06-13 09:23:00

Did you see the 'rotation-movie' on the NASA/Cassini site?
Whoa, those are BIG impact craters, unbelievable that Phoebe is still in one piece... Does this support the theory of certain 'stony' asteroids being mainly collections of small rocks, loosely held together by water-ice? A solid body would surely scatter upon impacts of such magnitude...

*Yep. Highly irregular surface features, as expected. I like especially that one huge scoop-like depression in the upper portion of Phoebe.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … 102]Phoebe rotation "movie"

--Cindy

Palomar · 2004-06-13 20:21:35

*New from spaceref.com:

***
Phoebe's Surprise

Phoebe delivers on its promise to reveal new wonders to Cassini by showing probable evidence of an ice-rich body overlain with a thin layer of dark material. The sharply-defined crater at above center exhibits two or more layers of alternating bright and dark material. Imaging scientists on the Cassini mission have hypothesized that the layering might occur during the crater formation, when ejecta thrown out from the crater buries the pre-existing surface that was itself covered by a relatively thin, dark lag deposit over an icy mantle. The lower thin dark layer on the crater wall appears to define the base of the ejecta blanket. The ejecta blanket itself appears to be mantled by a more recent dark surface lag.
***

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … 7]Original article here; check out that crater! Sort of looks like a scallop shell to me...

--Cindy

TheMadCap · 2004-06-15 19:19:41

Wow, I am totally blown away by these images.

I like to think about how happy people like Kepler and Huygens would be seeing these...

bolbuyk · 2004-06-16 06:22:02

Very interesting. Phoebe is really fascinating.

Palomar · 2004-06-21 15:39:41

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini- … ml]Cassini on course!

*Last Wednesday Cassini completed a "successful trajectory correction maneuver." Its main engine burned for 38 seconds, which served to slow Cassini by approximately 8 mph. This will enable Cassini to pass through the gap between F and G rings. Not without its risks, however:

"The region of passage through the ring plane was searched for hazards with the best Earth- and space-based telescopes and by Cassini itself. To protect the spacecraft from particles too small to be detected from Earth, Cassini will be turned to use its high-gain antenna as a shield.

'This should be our final approach maneuver. It's on to Saturn and orbit insertion,' said Earl Maize, deputy program manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory..."

They'll be monitoring tracking data over the coming days to make sure everything's okay; so far all indications are that Cassini is "on target."

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-22 02:25:06

you can read some of the news on the Saturn moon article here and what they make of the images so far

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php … php?id=200

cassioli · 2004-06-22 10:01:33

"The region of passage through the ring plane was searched for hazards with the best Earth- and space-based telescopes and by Cassini itself. To protect the spacecraft from particles too small to be detected from Earth, Cassini will be turned to use its high-gain antenna as a shield.

Wasn't there any better way to approach the planet, than passing through an... asteroid field?!? :rant:

cassioli · 2004-06-22 10:03:17

Quite http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.htm … 107]curios crater: looks quite young, or perhaps originated by soil sinking rather than meteor impact. ???

Palomar · 2004-06-22 10:03:26

Its main engine burned for 38 seconds, which served to slow Cassini by approximately 8 mph. This will enable Cassini to pass through the gap between F and G rings. Not without its risks, however:
"The region of passage through the ring plane was searched for hazards with the best Earth- and space-based telescopes and by Cassini itself. To protect the spacecraft from particles too small to be detected from Earth, Cassini will be turned to use its high-gain antenna as a shield..."

*I have to admit I'm getting worried about Cassini passing through that gap in the rings. :-\ They've analyzed the situation quite a bit, but still...

...so much debris and etc.

--Cindy

cassioli · 2004-06-22 10:27:13

http://anon.nasa-global.speedera.net/an … i.mpg]This movie about Huygens landing is not so much encouraging about mission success...
No landing-rockets, no "legs", no parachute detaching before landing.... and if it falls down over the lander?!?

Palomar · 2004-06-22 13:25:36

http://anon.nasa-global.speedera.net/an … i.mpg]This movie about Huygens landing is not so much encouraging about mission success...
No landing-rockets, no "legs", no parachute detaching before landing.... and if it falls down over the lander?!?

*I can't get that movie to play. I thought Huygens -is- equipped with a parachute (based on illustrations I've seen). Well, if it's as you say, here's hoping it DOES land in fluid. :-\

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publish … 04]Cassini: Iapetus coming into view

"Cassini has turned to look at another of Saturn's moons; this time it's Iapetus. This image was taken on May 23, 2004, when Cassini was 20.2 million kilometres (12.5 million miles) from Iapetus. Although it's small and hazy in this picture, the moon is much larger than Phoebe, and measures 1436 km (892 miles) across. It was first photographed up close by the Voyager spacecraft, which found that it has a light and a dark side - this duality is just barely visible in this image."

--Cindy

TheMadCap · 2004-06-22 17:30:29

quote]
Wasn't there any better way to approach the planet, than passing through an... asteroid field?!? :rant:

Someone else will have to confirm this, but I think it is because space craft require less energy overall to launch in the ecliptic plane...

atomoid · 2004-06-23 02:55:43

To protect the spacecraft from particles too small to be detected from Earth, Cassini will be turned to use its high-gain antenna as a shield

...just how small are the particles that can they expect to detect?

Rxke · 2004-06-23 16:14:38

a bit off-topic, but not totally, I ruthlessly snatched this from the EverythingScience MessageBoards (Thanks, Remcook!)

http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UA … 9288]Titan photographed from Earth!

Kick-ass camera, for sure! Be sure to click the link at the bottom of the page for a nice movie..

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-23 16:32:01

I think now they are starting to understand the true nature of these wonderful moons

there are more pictures just out

new image created which describes the detail of the small moon

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … _221_1.jpg

This colorful graphic illustrates that despite Phoebe's bumpy, irregular topography, the moon has a fairly round shape. A digitally rendered shape model of Phoebe was constructed using Cassini imaging data obtained before and after the spacecraft's close flyby of the Saturnian moon on June 11, 2004.
The average diameter of Phoebe is about 214 kilometers (133 miles). The four views of the model are each separated by a 90 degree rotation; the upper left is centered at 0 degrees West longitude. The others show regions of the moon centered at 90, 180 and 270 degrees West longitude, as labeled. The coloring of the models corresponds to the height of Phoebe’s surface, relative to the lowest point – a range of about 16 kilometers (10 miles) – going from blue (low) to red (high).

this is great to see the moon in this detail

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu]http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu

QUOTE
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov]http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org.]http://ciclops.org.

very good mission

Palomar · 2004-06-24 07:24:36

http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zb.html]Phoebe like "kin to comets"

*They've determined Phoebe is a Kuiper Belt object and are in fact pronouncing Cassini as the first probe to fly past a KB object.

"That Phoebe likely comes from the Kuiper belt and not from the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt is another 'first' for the Cassini mission, Brown noted. Cassini has become the first spacecraft to flyby a Kuiper belt object, he said."

--Cindy

cassioli · 2004-06-24 14:12:39

http://anon.nasa-global.speedera.net/an … i.mpg]This movie about Huygens landing is not so much encouraging about mission success...
No landing-rockets, no "legs", no parachute detaching before landing.... and if it falls down over the lander?!?
*I can't get that movie to play.

It's better... I posted a wrong link!
The right one is http://anon.nasa-global.speedera.net/an … i.mpg]this
Anyway here it is a VERY reduced-catted-DEproved(?)-dirty version (just 300 KB in place of original 1.1 MB )

(Sometimes the link work, sometimes not... try it into a new window and refresh the window...
http://i.1asphost.com/jumpjack/landing. … anding.gif
)

Palomar · 2004-06-26 08:07:44

Phoebes]http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13220]Phoebe's true shape

*This is really cool. Taken from June 11 fly-by (is that over a week ago already?!) data.

I think Phoebe looks like Fred Flintstone's bowling ball in these images. :laugh:

--Cindy

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-27 06:00:14

yes, the images of Phoebe have been great !

Very good detail , huge clarity and much better than anything before

it's amazing to think pheobe is a kuiper belt object and may be much older then Saturn

Yang Liwei Rocket · 2004-06-27 06:05:14

There more news that came out in the last while

And a nice image of Titan has come out, some people are discussing the posibility of life on the Saturn Moon.

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … _217_1.jpg

QUOTE

The Cassini spacecraft has beamed back a new, more detailed image of smog-enshrouded Titan.

This view represents an improvement in resolution of nearly a factor of three over the previous Cassini image release about Titan (PIA 05392). The observed brightness variations are real on scales of a hundred kilometers or less

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/media/ir … _217_1.jpg

here is some information from the ESA web page

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huy … QUD_0.html

The ESA/NASA Cassini-Huygens mission, launched in October 1997, is currently heading for Titan, Saturn’s largest moon.
The ESA Huygens probe will be the first ever to land on the surface of a moon in the outer Solar System, and the NASA Cassini orbiter will continue to explore Saturn and its rings.
On 1 July CEST (30 June Pacific Daylight Time), after a journey of almost seven years and four gravity-assist swing-by manoeuvres, the spacecraft will be inserted into its orbit around Saturn and will reach its closest approach to the planet.

The ESA TV service will provide extensive live coverage of all international press conferences, the orbital insertion operations on the night of 30 June to 1 July, and the presentation of the first images and results at JPL. All transmission and satellite details are published online and will be continuously updated at http://television.esa.int.]http://television.esa.int.

The ESA live TV line transmission of the orbital insertion will also be transmitted on Astra 2C, the satellite reception details being as follows:

Astra 2C at 19 degrees East
Transponder 57, horizontal, MPEG-2, MCPC
Frequency 10832 MHz, Symbol rate 22000 MS/sec. FEC=5/6.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colorado.

Palomar · 2004-06-29 07:35:46

*Someone mentioned earlier Huygens -not- having a parachute?

According to http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/c … .html]this article it does have a parachute (which is what I've read previously as well).

Chute will slow Huygens down from a speed of 20,000 kilometers per hour to 6 meters per second in just 3 minutes of time. Amazing. From Mach 20 to Mach 1.5!

ESA spokespeople saying they're excited about the joint mission...regardless of the outcome of Huygens (erm....?). Seems a bit blase. ??? Hopefully a GOOD outcome!

--Cindy

Rxke · 2004-06-29 09:08:29

Not blasé. They know Huygens is high-risk, so it very probably will fail, but if it doesn't the potential scientific payback will be immense, so they are willing to gamble.

(Nobody knows what the surface is like, for starters, so it could crash, or fall into a lake, etc...)

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