Projecting Cassini's Mission into the future

[SiberianTiger]

An interesting presentation here, summing up the up-to day results of Cassini mission and containing proposals on the prolonged duartions and possible mission finalization:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/march_08_meeting/presentations/spilker.pdf

If you page down to p.19 you'll see a very curious table. It turns out, for instance, that in order to send Cassini out to another Gas Giant, only 5 to 35 m/d delta V is required! (though this scenario is not considered the most plausible).

 

[ryan]

and now we wait and wait and wait and wait, sometimes Saturn mission irratate me.

 

[SiberianTiger]

and now we wait and wait and wait and wait, sometimes mars mission irratate me.

Excuse me, Cassini is in Saturn's orbit.

 

[Chode]

I'd vote for "Impact main rings" The spacecraft may be destroyed, but the possibility of imaging the rings "up-close" would be a big plus. And, if the spacecraft is not destroyed, you get another pass, and maybe another...

Regards

 

[ryan]

sorry i edited it. Thats a good idea Chode, we can see what the rings are actually made out of.

 

[Ghostrider]

Excuse me, Cassini is in Saturn's orbit.

Mars, Saturn... Seen one Roman deity, seen them all. Except for Venus who has some nice cleavage.

 

[Missioncmdr]

I'd vote for "Impact main rings" The spacecraft may be destroyed, but the possibility of imaging the rings "up-close" would be a big plus. And, if the spacecraft is not destroyed, you get another pass, and maybe another...

Regards

Sounds like a cool idea, but that is probably better left off when Cassini reaches the end of its operational lifetime.

 

[mbartley]

escape to Centaur?

What does the "escape to Centaur" end-of-mission option mean? I'm guessing that, like the "escape to gas giant" option, they'd do several moon gravity assists (Titan?) to break out of Saturn orbit, but then where would they go? It says it would be a 3 year flight after leaving Saturn orbit.

As opposed to the flight to Jupiter option which would take 12 years. Too bad they didn't have a proposed departure date for that - I'd like to try that on Orbiter. I have a hard time believing it could be done with 5-35 m/s of delta-V.

 

[Notebook]

Can't mean a rendevous with the Centaur stage from its launch???

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/pdfs/launch.pdf

N.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Can't mean a rendevous with the Centaur stage from its launch???

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/products/pdfs/launch.pdf

N.

No, it's this Centaur:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaur_(planetoid)

 

[Notebook]

Excellent, that makes sense!

N.

 

[ryan]

Why would they want to rendevous with there centuar stage.

 

[Notebook]

I'm now sure they wouldn't. I hadn't heard of the Centaur group, and the only connection I could make was the rocket stage's name. Daft really, but it was a Friday night...

N.

 

[BrianJ]

As opposed to the flight to Jupiter option which would take 12 years. Too bad they didn't have a proposed departure date for that - I'd like to try that on Orbiter. I have a hard time believing it could be done with 5-35 m/s of delta-V.

Very interesting. I've tried googling for more info about this, but no success so far. If anyone finds any references, please pass 'em on!

I wonder if it's possible to use slings around Titan to get into a Saturn-Jupiter transfer trajectory directly? Or would it be a case of getting into a heliocentric orbit that brings you back to Saturn for a gravity assist, and then on to Jupiter? (12 years doesn't sound like enough time for that).

Or is it a Lagrange Point -> Lagrange Point "Interplanetary Superhighway" type trajectory?

I think it might interesting to set this up in Orbiter and see what the possibilities are (Cassini orbital data are available on JPL Horizons).

Regards,
Brian

 

[Missioncmdr]

To me, a Jupiter mission just does not make any sense. It would take twelve years for Cassini to reach it. The spacecraft is already more than ten years old. And besides, that is twelve years that could be spent studying Saturn and its moons. Seems like that would be a better option than spending another twelve years in interplanetary space.

Might be interesting to fly in Orbiter, though.

 

[teago]

What does the "escape to Centaur" end-of-mission option mean? I'm guessing that, like the "escape to gas giant" option, they'd do several moon gravity assists (Titan?) to break out of Saturn orbit, but then where would they go? It says it would be a 3 year flight after leaving Saturn orbit.

As opposed to the flight to Jupiter option which would take 12 years. Too bad they didn't have a proposed departure date for that - I'd like to try that on Orbiter. I have a hard time believing it could be done with 5-35 m/s of delta-V.

This sounds like a flytandem challenge.