NASA Saturn Mission Prepares for 'Ring-Grazing Orbits'

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'Earhart' Propeller in Saturn's A Ring

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7 years 7 months ago #8308 by ??

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Sliver of Saturn

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7 years 7 months ago #8313 by ??

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NASA's Cassini Mission Prepares for Grand Finale at Saturn

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7 years 7 months ago #8337 by ??

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Ring-Grazing Orbit No. 19

Orbit 269
This is the second to last of Cassini's 20 Ring-Grazing orbits. Cassini will pass within 5,100 miles (8,200 kilometers) of Saturn’s F ring during this orbit.

During this orbit, Cassini’s visible light camera, the Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS), will collect images of Saturn’s C and B rings to better understand how the rings evolve.

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7 years 7 months ago #8371 by ??

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Plateaus Up Close

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7 years 7 months ago #8382 by ??

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Commanding Cassini: Sending the Code to Begin the Grand Finale

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7 years 7 months ago #8395 by ??

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Ring-Grazing Orbit No. 20

Orbit 270 - Gateway to the Grand Finale
This is Cassini's final ring-grazing orbit.

This orbit also includes the final close flyby of Saturn’s largest moon Titan, whose gravity Cassini has used for nearly all of the spacecraft’s major trajectory changes. Cassini will pass within about 600 miles (about 1,000 kilometers) of the Mercury-sized moon on Saturday, April 22. Closest approach to Titan occurs at 3:26 a.m. Eastern time.

The spacecraft will use Titan’s gravity as a pivot point to change the shape of Cassini’s orbit in a fateful way -- from this point forward, the spacecraft's orbit will eventually impact Saturn, even if controllers on Earth take no further action. The flyby alters Cassini's orbit so that, instead of flying just outside of the rings, the spacecraft will shoot through the narrow space between Saturn’s upper atmosphere and its innermost rings. The spacecraft will repeat that dive once per week until the end of the mission in September. The Titan flyby marks the end of Cassini’s Ring-Grazing Orbits, and sets the stage for the mission’s Grand Finale to begin.

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NASA Saturn Mission Prepares for 'Ring-Grazing Orbits'

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