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[remcook]

preview story

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040612preview.html

[remcook]

new pictures of Phoebe

http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/

[Orstio]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multimedia/pia06064.html

[Astronuc]

NYTimes - June 15 - The spacecraft has already had its first Saturn encounter, passing by Phoebe, the planet's small dark outermost moon on Friday. Scientists theorize that in Phoebe they may be getting their first close examination of an object from the outer reaches of the solar system. Everything about its appearance and motions suggests that 137-mile-diameter Phoebe originated far beyond the outer planets and that it was flung toward Saturn, which captured it into its orbit. Saturn itself, second to Jupiter in size, now looms so large that its full girth no longer fits inside the frame of the craft's narrow-angle camera. The Cassini's two cameras are expected to take as many as 500,000 pictures in the next four years.

Thought this was pretty cool.

Also for other pics and info - http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm

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[Astronuc]

I also couldn't resist a cool shot of Saturn taken last May.

NYTimes - June 15-04 - JOHN NOBLE WILFORD - Forty-five of the 76 Cassini orbits will include Titan flybys, coming as close as 600 miles from its surface on some encounters. One of the icy moons, Titan is larger than Mercury or Pluto and somewhat smaller than Mars.  Its substantial atmosphere, like Earth's, is thick with nitrogen, though it has no free oxygen. The other atmospheric components are methane, ethane, propane and other organic materials containing hydrogen and carbon. Titan has a greenhouse-warmed climate with methane clouds and rain, perhaps even lakes.

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[remcook]

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/large-moons/images/PIA05411.jpg&type=image

iapetus

[remcook]

tonight (or this afternoon, or morning, or..) press briefing "Cassini at Phoebe"

Mission News Briefing
Wednesday June 23, 10 a.m. PDT
The briefing will highlight new science results from the Cassini-Huygens flyby of Saturn's moon Phoebe.

[remcook]

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/small-moons/images/PIA06400.jpg&type=image


the unidentified material is probably some hydrocarbon according to the person at the press conference

[remcook]

2 days till SOI

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=13223

[remcook]

http://www.planetary.org/news/2004/cassini_soi_approach_0628.html

[remcook]

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/rings/images/PIA06077.jpg&type=image

[remcook]

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040629presoi.html
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040628timeline.html
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040629winds.html
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/cassini/040612preview.html
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1045&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://www.astrobio.net/news/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1044&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/cassini_update_040629.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/cassini-04zf.html
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/saturn-magnetic-04b.html

what a way to celebrate ES's bithday       

[Skyjim]

The moment of truth approaches!

They are actually beginning the orbital insertion burn slightly earlier than the theoretically optimum time, to allow time for the spacecraft to switch from the primary to the backup main engine if that shold be necessary early in the burn.  The AW&ST article last week indicated that the shutdown, reconfigure, and start of the backup main engine would consume approximately 10 minutes - and of course any anomalies would have to be dealt with autonomously by the spacecraft, since light time precludes any intervention from the ground during the burn sequence.

I cannot believe that it has been almost 8 years since I saw Cassini in the Spacecraft Assembly Facility at JPL, being fitted with its thermal blankets.  It is a BIG spacecraft!

Jim

[remcook]

very nice video clip of Atlas and other small moons

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/videos/movies/PIA06076.gif&type=movie

caption:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=../multimedia/images/small-moons/images/PIA06078.jpg&type=image

[Voyager3591]

My daughter's and my signatures are among the 600,000+ scanned onto the DVD aboard Cassini, so this contributes to our interest in this mission.  I wonder what percentage of those who are members of this site are also represented on the Cassini DVD?