Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread

[douglas_clark]

Absolutely!<br /><br />Douglas

 

[aerogi]

Isn't there a chance, because the whole planet seems to be in some kind of 'fog', that we won't see much on the panorama pictures because of the smog or mist? Let's hope not, but it could be...

 

[tom_hobbes]

Thanks for the tip Q! I've downloaded the beast and it looks very goooooooood!<br /><br />So good in fact that I'm getting a fullsize print made up to go on my wall. Cheers. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[backspace]

I am so disappointed in the Huygens release photos. I really expected the team to take quite a few more pictures and with more detail. Of course, if the separation mechanism accellerated Huygens away substantially relative to Cassini, I guess it could have gotten away before you could turn to point the cameras at it. Still, I had visions of seeing it close up.

 

[CalliArcale]

Well, we're seeing more than Galileo saw of its probe, so I'm happy. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"Isn't there a chance, because the whole planet seems to be in some kind of 'fog', that we won't see much on the panorama pictures...?"</font><br /><br />I found this comment in the latest edition of The Planetary Report, <br />a publication of the Planetary Society. <br /><br />"...our models indicate that the bottom of Titan's haze is approximately 70km (44 miles) <br />from the surface." -- Martin Tomasko (decent imagery principal investigator)<br /><br />Lets hope he's right. He should know as well as anyone. If so, clear views of the ground starting at 70km would be fantastic! I hope the low light levels won't be too much of a problem. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[bobvanx]

I found this image at the DISR website.<br /><br />The instrument comes with a lamp! So they will be illuminating the surface as they get close enough.

 

[alexblackwell]

<p>Cassini Mission Status Report<br />Jet Propulsion Laboratory<br />December 28, 2004<br /><br />NASA's Cassini spacecraft successfully performed a getaway maneuver on Monday, Dec. 27, to keep it from following the European Space Agency's Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. This maneuver established the required geometry between the probe and the orbiter for radio communications during the probe descent on Jan. 14. The probe has no navigating capability, so the Cassini orbiter had been placed on a deliberate collision course with Titan to ensure the accurate delivery of the probe to Titan.<br /><br />The Huygens probe successfully detached from the Cassini orbiter on Dec. 24. All systems performed as expected. <br /><br />The European Space Agency's Huygens probe will be the first human- made object to explore on-site the unique environment of Titan, whose chemistry is thought to be very similar to that of early Earth before life arose. <br /><br />Next for Cassini is a flyby of Saturn's icy moon Iapetus on Dec. 31. Iapetus is Saturn's two-faced moon -- one side is very bright, and the other is very dark. One scenario for this striking difference is that the moon's surface is being resurfaced by some material spewing from within. <br /><br />The Cassini spacecraft has been in orbit around Saturn since June 30, 2004, and has returned stunning pictures of Saturn, its rings and many moons. Titan has already been the subject of two close flybys by Cassini. With 43 more flybys planned and the in-situ measurements made by the probe, it is likely only a matter of time before Titan's secrets begin to unfold. <br /><br />More information on the Cassini-Huygens mission is available at: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and http://www.nasa.gov/cassini. <br /><br />The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of the Californ</p>

 

[teije]

According to your link, the lamp will only be turned on in the last 700 meters. Before that (69,3 km higher up according to this thread) it will have to make do with sunlight only. <br />I'm hoping for great panorama's. But there's not a lot of light on Titan.<br /><br />Teije

 

[bobvanx]

Yes, well, Cassini seems able to make pictures of Titan with reflected sunlight alone, and in just a single, narrow "window" of translucency. IOW, the pics of Titan's surface so far, are from a narrow frequency band, which had to pass through the clouds twice to get to the camera.<br /><br />Huygens will pass below the clouds, so it'll already be getting more light. Plus it will be able to use more of the spectrum to build an image.<br /><br />Assuming they've programmed it correctly, we'll see some amazing images!

 

[teije]

<font color="yellow"> Yes, well, Cassini seems able to make pictures of Titan with reflected sunlight alone, and in just a single, narrow "window" of translucency. IOW, the pics of Titan's surface so far, are from a narrow frequency band, which had to pass through the clouds twice to get to the camera. </font><br /><br />I thought the only direct surface measurements were from the radar? And that the camera's on Cassini can't penetrate the clouds? Am I wrong?<br /><br />thanks,<br />Teije

 

[bobvanx]

There's a "window" through the smog, at a very specific frequency of light. The global views of Titan are taken through this window. They have a filter that covers the camera, and blocks out all the muddy wavelengths, and lets just this one through.<br /><br />It works pretty well. We can see the surface, but since humans are used to seeing things in multiple spectra (ie, color) it's really hard to interpret waht we are looking at.<br /><br />It's going to take the RADAR, the Cassini global images, and the images from Huygens to make sense out of Titan.

 

[alexblackwell]

<i>I thought the only direct surface measurements were from the radar? And that the camera's on Cassini can't penetrate the clouds? Am I wrong?</i> <br /><br />Yes, you are wrong. Cassini's Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) and Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) both can sense Titan's surface at specific bandpasses. Have you even seen some of the ISS and VIMS released imagery from the Titan flybys?

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"I thought the only direct surface measurements were from the radar?"</font><br /><br />The best images, showing the most detail -- possible lakes, flows, fractures, etc. -- are from radar. But these cover a very small portion (1%) of Titans surface. Although a certain amount of detail is seen in the radar images, there is really no good way to interpret what is being seen. This is where the Huygens images will be of immense value. No radar images have been made of the Huygens landing site yet, but I'm sure there will be. <br /><br />The images showing large, continent-size, light and dark areas covering Titan, are not radar images. They show little detail and, strangely, so far, remote sensing shows little compositional difference between the light and dark areas. So how do they differ? Here again, Huygens may be a big help. It looks like Huygens will have both light and dark areas in its view as it descends. Possibly its images and other remote observations will help tell the physical differences between the light and dark areas.<br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[teije]

Ah ok all of you. Thanks for clearing that up. <br />Teije

 

[grooble]

Seeing those images is going to be fantastic. I heard there is a Neptune mission on the cards too. I can imagine seeing the frozen planes and mountains. <br /><br />Superb.

 

[redracer02]

That would be cool.<br /><br />And why is page 17 showing up, but nothing is there?<br /><br />So, does the Titan probe have any sort of guidance system to get it to Titan, or is it just cruising on a collosion course with the moon?

 

[alexblackwell]

<i>So, does the Titan probe have any sort of guidance system to get it to Titan, or is it just cruising on a collsion course with the moon?</i><br /><br />The latter.

 

[redracer02]

Opps, I meant to edit that, thanks.<br /><br />Boy, I hope they got there calculations right this time.<br /><br />

 

[redracer02]

I guess it isn't page 17 for everyone, but the last page is still blank.

 

[Leovinus]

<i>Saturn's planet-sized moon Titan displays a surprisingly flattened-looking north pole in this Cassini image. The cause of this flattening is not presently known. Titan's diameter is 5,150 kilometers (3,200 miles). A hint of the bright, streak-like clouds seen intermittently in Cassini images of the south polar region is faintly visible at the bottom of the image.<br /><br />This view was obtained in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Nov. 1, 2004, at a distance of approximately 2.9 million kilometers (1.8 million miles) from Titan and at a Sun-Titan-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 99 degrees. The image scale is 17 kilometers (10.6 miles) per pixel. </i><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

<font color="orange"><b>NASA's Cassini Caps off 2004 With Flyby of Icy Moon Iapetus</b><br /><br /> NASA's Cassini spacecraft is set to cap off 2004 with an encounter of Saturn's ying-yang moon Iapetus (eye-APP-eh-tuss) on New Year's Eve. <br /><br />This is Cassini's closest pass yet by one of Saturn's smaller icy satellites since its arrival around the ringed giant on June 30 of this year. The next close flyby of Iapetus is not until 2007.</font><br /><br />JPL News Release...<br /><br />The news release includes the following list of "Cassini spacecraft targeted satellite encounters for 2005:"<br /><ul type="square"><br /> <li>Titan: January 14, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: February 15, 2005<br /> <li>Enceladus: March 9, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: March 31, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: April 16, 2005<br /> <li>Enceladus: July 14, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: August 22, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: September 7, 2005<br /> <li>Hyperion: September 26, 2005<br /> <li>Dione: October 11, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: October 28, 2005<br /> <li>Rhea: November 26, 2005<br /> <li>Titan: December 26, 2005</li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></li></ul><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>

 

[backspace]

From the Iapetus encounter video they have on the site, I notice that a downlink for initial data started at 8:55 UTC through 13:30 UTC... interesting... now we can judge how long it takes to process the data... <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[backspace]

By the way,<br /><br />On orbit insertion, JPL/NASA released a VERY detailed operations timeline that included the communications windows, pointing maneuvers, imaging routines, all with timelines. It was very cool... is there somewhere online where you can access these? I know you can get the Voyager ones to this day (and they cover everything, including planned operations in the future), but I don't see the Cassini ones linked anywhere...<br /><br />My money is on Alex answering this first. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[alexblackwell]

<i>On orbit insertion, JPL/NASA released a VERY detailed operations timeline that included the communications windows, pointing maneuvers, imaging routines, all with timelines. It was very cool... is there somewhere online where you can access these? I know you can get the Voyager ones to this day (and they cover everything, including planned operations in the future), but I don't see the Cassini ones linked anywhere...</i> <br /><br />Are you referring to this (1.1 Mb PDF)?