Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread

[bobw]

That color picture is too wierd. I tried sliding the color curves around on one black and white image and I never got anything that looked like that! It looks like a big orange creature is in there wanting to eat me.... <img src="/images/icons/crazy.gif" /><br /><br />Thanks. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[alexblackwell]

<i>If volcanopele isn't too busy right now and sees this maybe he can explain the different views. I think that in the first panel the outer white box is for the wide angle ISS, the orange box is for VIMS (Visual and IR Mapping Spectrometer), the small white box is the narrow angle ISS and the circle may be for CIRS ( Composite IR Spectrometer). I'm not sure about the elongated purple boxes or some of the different sized circles in later panels (radar?)</i><br /><br />I'm not sure if Jason saw this, Pete. However, in the past I've posted screenshots of these Cassini orbiter remote sensing (ORS) pallet views, which are produced by David Seal of Cassini Mission Planning (MP) for the Cassini Real-Time Activity Display feature on the restricted internal Cassini website, over in the "Unveiling Titan" thread in the Space Science & Astronony forum. The white, orange, and magenta lines/circles represent the fields of view for the ISS NAC and ISS WAC, CIRS, and UVIS, respectively. And yes, the concentric blue circles represent the RADAR view, which is orthogonally mounted to the ORS pallet.

 

[trockner]

I hope no one minds (not that you can be aware anyway) if I lurk around this thread for awhile before I dare say anything.<br /><br />Oh, what the hell!<br /><br />Has anyone heard of a very recent "anomaly" seen in orbit around Saturn?<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />

 

[spacechump]

<img src="/images/icons/rolleyes.gif" /><br /><br />Let me guess. Is it black and rectangular?

 

[remcook]

it is called Cassin/Huygens. It is of human origin.

 

[decepticon]

Did JPL state how much of Titans surface is to mapped buy the Radar? Percent wise?<br /><br />I can't tell you how excited I am for these observations.<br />All these years of wondering whats below that cloud deck.<br /><br />If titan any interal heat, that would make my Day! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[nesoft]

Some good raws of Titan are already starting to come in on the JPL website now.<br /><br />Here is a link to the images

 

[Leovinus]

Here's one of those raw images: <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[spacechump]

Wow.....just........wow.......

 

[mikehoward]

That is one weird-looking planet... I mean moon. Is it just a giant (partially melted?) slushball, or what? What the heck is going on there? I can't wait until we have some better pictures.

 

[fangsheath]

One prediction I will make based on past experience: When Huygens finally gives us a look at the surface, we will find that it is more beautiful than we imagine.

 

[mikehoward]

I can't wait for that, either. There's nothing like seeing a new world for the first time. Seeing it from the surface in a few months would be... fantastic.

 

[mikehoward]

New raw images of Titan have been posted. Closer and closer...<br /><br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/casJPGFullS05/N00023214.jpg<br /><br />

 

[Leovinus]

Raw image:<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[titanian]

Many questions on the image that the Huygens probe will take from the surface of this moon.Will there be enough luminosity for a clear snapshot: the amount of energy reaching the surface is expected to be around 90 times weaker than that reaching the surface of our planet.<br />How will be the visibility?n that point, one could expect a dense fog so that we can't discern the horizon.Imagine the apparent size of Saturn and the Sun throughout the sky from the surface of Titan ( hypothetical!):the apparent disk of the Sun is 10 times smaller in diameter than that visible from our planet.Likewise, the apparent disk of Saturn is 11 times the apparent disk of our moon in diameter ( as seen from our planet).<br />And what is the color of the Titan skyne certainty, it won't resemble the sky of our own moon!<br /><br />www.titanexploration.com

 

[silylene old]

The small circular feature in the middle: crater or volcanic caldera poking through the fog, or a dust particle on the lense?<br /><br />I know an impact crater is much more likely (for reasons we have discussed in detail earlier). But the picture is interesting! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[trockner]

spacechump & remcook...<br /><br />I can't find anything online, so I guess it must've been just another routine new moon sighting hyped up by the excitable <img src="/images/icons/blush.gif" />.

 

[Leovinus]

It's a problem with the lens. You'll see that in every raw image. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[peteb]

An animation of the flyby has now been released:<br />http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=500

 

[peteb]

trockner -<br /><br />Maybe it was this image:<br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=24788<br /><br />but , starting with the next image in the sequence there are 18 of Dione (?) without the blurring.<br />http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=24789

 

[decepticon]

Are the raw images Displayed with north facing up?<br /><br />The white puffy patch on the right looks like the South pole.

 

[jimblewit]

Not only that, but I can definitely make out the East coast of Britain - no wonder it's so cloudy...

 

[thechemist]

Eyes on Xanadu - October 25, 2004<br /><i>"This image taken on Oct. 24, 2004, reveals Titan's bright "continent-sized" terrain known as Xanadu. It was acquired with the narrow angle camera on Cassini's imaging science subsystem through a spectral filter centered at 938 nanometers, a wavelength region at which Titan's surface can be most easily detected. The surface is seen at a higher contrast than in previously released imaging science subsystem images due to a lower phase angle (Sun-Titan-Cassini angle), which minimizes scattering by the haze." </i><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[thechemist]

Zooming in on Titan - October 25, 2004 <br /><i> "This map of Titan's surface, generated from images taken during Cassini's approach to Saturn, illustrates the imaging coverage planned during Cassini's first very close Titan flyby on Oct. 26, 2004. Colored lines enclose regions that will be covered at different imaging scales as Cassini approaches Titan....."</i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>I feel better than James Brown.</em> </div>

 

[backspace]

From yesterday's NASA press release:<br /><br />"This is not the same white-knuckle situation we had during Saturn orbit insertion, but there are some things we can't control," said Earl Maize, deputy project manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL. "If a spacecraft anomaly should occur, or if the weather at the tracking stations does not cooperate, the science return may be limited or lost. Although this is an unlikely scenario, the possibility still exists." <b> Cassini will have only one opportunity to send the data back to Earth before the data are overwritten on the recorders by data from the next set of observations. </b> The first downlink of data by NASA's Deep Space Network occurs at 6:30 p.m. PDT. <br /><br /><br />WHAT?<br /><br />If this is indeed the last of the Battlestar Galactica class probes, I find it exceptionally dumb that there's no backup plan for storing data collected during the Ta encounter. What if something happens at Madrid? Is the memory on Cassini so tight that they can't store everything in the event there's a pointing issue, bad weather at Madrid, power outage in Pasadena? Heck, the MER's have quite a bit of memory and have been storing GIGS of data before downloading parts of it.<br /><br />Of course, I just realized that this thing was built in 1996. Hard drives were pretty small... Anyone know the capacity of the SSR arrays? I'm wondering if they're really going to fill these all up completely, to the point that the next information gathering period would be destructive...<br /><br />Is it possible that the press release may be an overstatement ? Some of the documentation I have seen suggests that Cassini can and will be transmitting up to 4 gigs a day... it seems to me that if I was planning a 760 mile flyby of Titan I would probably max out my observations, but whatever observations they make post-flyby cannot possibly contain the same amount of data, or so logic would suggest.<br /><br />Further, I've been unable to locate any detaile