Could Cassini orbit Titan during extended mission?

[vonster]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>>I'm not interested in possibilities.<br /><br />Oh. Never mind then.<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br /><br /><br /><br />lol, yeah .. he's very consistant like that <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br /><br />.

 

[3488]

Whilst this is a great idea (I would love to see this happen), I am just not sure if it is possible. The only way I could see it done, is for Cassini to encounter Iapetus several times, taking images of course (Iapetus being reasonably large & far from Saturn could help here), to rob forward momentum from Cassini, thus reducing her approach speeds to Titan, thus hopefully enabling capture.<br /><br /><br />I think that before Titan Orbital insertion is attempted, there should be at least one or two more close encounters with Enceladus & Iapetus, as these two moons are far more interesting than the others such as battered cratered ice balls Mimas, Rhea & Tethys.<br /><br />I think that ALL further close encounters of Titan should be devoted to radar imaging, thus increasing the percentage of surface area seen at high resolution. <br /><br />It is fascinating to see how Ganymede, Titan, Mercury & Callisto are all of the same size within a few percent & how they are all so utterly different (I know Mercury is by far the most massive with its huge iron core & thick silicate crust).<br /><br />By the way, is there any information regarding Titan's internal structure, is it like Ganymede, with a definate core, mantle & crust, or more like Callisto, a largely homogenous undifferentiated interior?? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080">"I suddenly noticed an anomaly to the left of Io, just off the rim of that world. It was extremely large with respect to the overall size of Io and crescent shaped. It seemed unbelievable that something that big had not been visible before".</font> <em><strong><font color="#000000">Linda Morabito </font></strong><font color="#800000">on discovering that the Jupiter moon Io was volcanically active. Friday 9th March 1979.</font></em></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://www.launchphotography.com/</font><br /><br /><font size="1" color="#000080">http://anthmartian.googlepages.com/thisislandearth</font></p><p><font size="1" color="#000080">http://web.me.com/meridianijournal</font></p> </div>

 

[thalion]

I think before the discovery of all the activity on Enceladus, the likelihood of a Titan-focused EM was much higher. Now, I think they will concentrate more on "divebomb" missions to Enceladus and other inner, icy satellites.

 

[chew_on_this]

I doubt there will be a divebomb due to contamination issues.

 

[alokmohan]

It will be fine idea ,but I suppose Huygens is supposed to do.