Titan Flyby 05 Dec 2007

[brellis]

NASA Page<br /><br />check the PDF "Mission Details" from the list on the right. It's very good. They have some <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /> 3D-ish models, and a concise summary of what we know right now.<br /><br />Enjoy! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[brellis]

'Organic Building Blocks' discovered in Titan's atmosphere <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[h2ouniverse]

I like the sentence "The murky orange disk of Saturn's moon Titan glides past -- a silent, floating sphere transiting Saturn".<br /><br />The word silent is amusing. As we can see the rings on the picture, we should be aware that there is a Rock Band at play <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />.

 

[dragon04]

Unfortunately, Titan is a cryogenic environment. But maybe, further chemical analysis will give us a unique "freeze-frame" (pun intended) view of potentially similar processes on the early Earth. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <em>"2012.. Year of the Dragon!! Get on the Dragon Wagon!".</em> </div>

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

One dumb question.<br />I always see news about flyby of space probes around the earth or other planets. I guess it works just like accelerating a charged particle through an electromagnetic field and then let the particle travel with uniform speed. In this case it's gravitational field instead of electromagnetic. <br /><br />My question is how much boost in speed can they get from such flybys? Any number in km/hr or mph before and after a flyby? Don't the space probes have to maintain a correct distance and initial speed before they enter the gravitational field of a space monster( I mean a planet)? Otherwise the probe will be heading and crash landing on the planet.<br /><br />Sorry, I feel lazy today to search. Any link would be fine.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="2" color="#ff0000"><strong>Earth is Boring</strong></font> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

The amount you can gain depends on how close you can get to the center of mass, the speed of the planet, and the angle you pass by.<br />If a planet has an atmosphere, you can't get too close or it's toast-o-matic time.<br />As long as your incoming speed exceeds the excape velocity, you will escape the gravity well. (that's about 25,000 mph, or 11.2 km/sec for earth) <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[brellis]

The upcoming flyby will be the 39th of Titan. Earlier this year, they were celebrating 100 successful 'trajectory maneuvers". They certainly use Titan to help redirect the craft towards its next orbital path. In the coming months, they're climbing to the highest inclination vs. the ring plane. Some more desktop candidates are coming! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#ff0000"><em><strong>I'm a recovering optimist - things could be better.</strong></em></font> </p> </div>

 

[3488]

Titan South Polar Region to be imaged, on Wedensday 5th December 2007.<br /><br />This looks like a very interesting pass coming up. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /><br /><br />Also the Huygens site & surounding area will be imaged.<br /><br />Tracking data will help refine the mass distribution within Titan's globe, a subject that<br />I am very interested in, how Titan fits in with Jupiter's Ganymede & Callisto in this respect.<br /><br />Andrew Brown. <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>

 

[robnissen]

New Horizons received around a 10,000 mph boost from its recent flyby of Jupiter. It went from around 40K mph to 50K mph (both relative to the sun).

 

[MeteorWayne]

Interestingly, the MESSENGER spacecraft on the way to Mercury is using the planetary flybys to reduce it's solar orbiting speed, to allow it to fall toward the target planet. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>