Long Voyage in a 6.7-meter Cassini

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[mvsmith]

The mission “Tour Alcatraz Island”, available for in-game download, is by a tvjohnso. Here is a screenshot from his other mission:

N00118309.jpg was taken on August 11, 2008 and received on Earth August 12, 2008. The camera was pointing toward ENCELADUS at approximately 20,681 kilometers away, and the image was taken using the CL1 and IR1 filters. This image has not been validated or calibrated. A validated/calibrated image will be archived with the NASA Planetary Data System in 2009.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

[mvsmith]

Enceladus is the sixth largest of the 47 known Saturnian moons. Discovered by Herschel in 1789, it can be described oxymoronically as a spheroidal ice cube.
With a geometric albedo of 1.4, it is the brightest sun-lit object in the solar system. It has a radius of about 250 Km.

Enceladus orbits near the center of Saturn’s E-ring, and is thought to contribute material to the ring.

Previous flybys in 2005 showed evidence of geysers and fissures, which together with magnetometer readings showing a weak field and infrared measurements indicating a 30 K hot spot, indicate the possibility of subsurface liquid water. Stay tuned.

Saturn is about 10.29 AU from Earth—it takes light about 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach Earth.

[mvsmith]

Gentlemen,
Here is a link to the running Blog that will give you an insight into what the Cassini crew are doing. New posts are added often, so it is worth revisiting periodically.

http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/cassini-aug08/ (http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/cassini-aug08/)

The “camera team” mentioned in the blog includes senior scientist tvjohnso.

[Dave M]

Hi Marty,
I found Blog and photos fascinating, (in fact I have added it to my favourites).

One silly question probably. Why does the left hand side of the temperature grade slope off slowly? Is it going towards another hotspot, or, is the right hand side going towards the dark side, (so to speak). 

Regards, Dave

[mvsmith]

Hi Dave,

I think your first explanation is correct; it’s getting close to another fracture.
The man to ask would be tvjohnso, when he has had time to come down to Earth. As you can tell from the blog, it’s a heady time for the crew.

If you keep watching the blog, and look at some of the other nasa/jpl links, you may see the answer.

I find it strange how few people keep up with the happenings in unmanned space exploration relative to the interest in the astro-jocks. I don’t demean the people who fly on STS or ISS; they are smart & gutsy folks, who tackle some very difficult tasks. However, NASA’s TV channel is dominated by the humans; I have seen no mention of this week’s flyby, or anything about Cassini-Huygens.

I would think that ShipSimmers would find this mission of interest. After all, folks that would deliberately crash an expensive craft like Huygens into a moon can’t be all bad!

Regards,
Marty

[TerryRussell]

Hi Marty.

Yes, the NASA channel is pretty uninteresting unless you like the "News 24" format. The images from Cassini are spectacular, aren't they. Wait until it does the 25Km fly-past! You'll be able to see dandruff on the alien's heads.

I've got a hook into some high-power radio receiver circuits and have been getting some of the data live, as the earth puts me in the right location. I've got some fairly fast processing power here and have been forwarding the data to friends at Cambridge and Oxford. They've been grinning broadly with the results. 

[mvsmith]

Hi Terry,
The neighbors must complain about your antenna.
Getting in the right location at the right time is quite a trick.

http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/ (http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/)

The director of the Canberra site is an Oceanographer (SIO), among other accomplishments.
Deep ocean—deep space; all the same.

As you probably know, The Cassini-Huygens mission is a partnership between NASA/JPL, The European Space Agency, and Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. Seventeen nations contributed to building the spacecraft.
The Huygens probe was built by ESA; the high-gain communication antenna by ASI.
The data is studied by more than 250 scientists worldwide.  If those two schools you mentioned have science programs, they probably have a more direct access to the raw images, although I think the Open University at Milton Keynes is the center of ESA activity in the UK.

[TerryRussell]

Hi Marty.

Cambridge and Oxford as in University. MK is one of the raw data feeds that I have, another is via Guildford (University of Surrey). And another is from an old friend who has a steerable 100metre dish in his back garden (Half the size of Texas behind his house...)

[mvsmith]

C’mon Terry, the entire UK isn’t half the size of Texas.

[TerryRussell]

Us men of Oxford think in 26 dimensions, though. Like the TARDIS, his garden is larger inside than out.

[mvsmith]

Hi Terry,
Do you remember when TARDIS, besides being Dr. Who’s vehicle, was an early Internet time client for Windows? That was before Microsoft built a client into the OS.

“Cambridge and Oxford as in University”? Are you trying to force me into resorting to smileys?
Regards,
Marty

[TerryRussell]

"If those two schools you mentioned have science programs"               

I still use an off-shoot of the Windows TARDIS: "NISTIME".

Personally. I liked the first 4 Doctor Whos.

Wiliam Hartnell as Susan's Grandfather was always somewhat "Peter Cushing" in his style.

Patrick Troughton was just a jolly good chap, while John Pertwee was a superb dandy. Tom Baker was of course, the real Ham. Wonderful in his overplayed eccentricity. Nearly as good as me.

Now, I'm off to kill a cyberman.

"Anyone can make a mistake", said the Dalek as it climbed off the garbage can.