Comments on: The Case for a Cassini XXM http://joshuacolwell.com/blog/index.php/2008/the-case-for-a-cassini-xxm/ Science, astronomy, politics, movies, and various minutiae. Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:50:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: JC http://joshuacolwell.com/blog/index.php/2008/the-case-for-a-cassini-xxm/comment-page-1/#comment-52103 JC Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:36:14 +0000 http://joshuacolwell.com/blog/index.php/2008/the-case-for-a-cassini-xxm/#comment-52103 One problem is that there is a planetary protection issue: both Titan and Enceladus will probably be put into a category by NASA that prevents any contamination. I'm not sure what was done with the Huygens probe as far as biological sterilization, but Cassini was not sterilized. So, like the Galileo spacecraft at Jupiter, they will want to make sure that Cassini doesn't have a chance of crashing into Enceladus or Titan. There may also be insufficient fuel to accomplish a Titan orbit capture, even with aerobraking. That would be my guess, but I don't remember seeing any studies on that. One problem is that there is a planetary protection issue: both Titan and Enceladus will probably be put into a category by NASA that prevents any contamination. I’m not sure what was done with the Huygens probe as far as biological sterilization, but Cassini was not sterilized. So, like the Galileo spacecraft at Jupiter, they will want to make sure that Cassini doesn’t have a chance of crashing into Enceladus or Titan.

There may also be insufficient fuel to accomplish a Titan orbit capture, even with aerobraking. That would be my guess, but I don’t remember seeing any studies on that.

]]> By: Todd http://joshuacolwell.com/blog/index.php/2008/the-case-for-a-cassini-xxm/comment-page-1/#comment-52050 Todd Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:11:32 +0000 http://joshuacolwell.com/blog/index.php/2008/the-case-for-a-cassini-xxm/#comment-52050 Any chance of attempting to orbit Titan by aerobraking? Even if it took several months to set it up, the mission scientists could turn on the imaging radar and have at it. Any chance of attempting to orbit Titan by aerobraking? Even if it took several months to set it up, the mission scientists could turn on the imaging radar and have at it.

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