ESA Science & Technology: Cassini Tour of Saturn and its Moons

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Cassini Tour of Saturn and its Moons

Upon arrival and orbit insertion, Cassini began its tour of the Saturnian system in July 2004. The four-year nominal mission lasted up to July 2008 with 74 unique orbits around Saturn. In this period, Cassini performed 45 Titan flybys and had close encounters with six of Saturn's other known moons. Cassini's path around Saturn was shaped by gravity-assist flybys of Titan.

In the four-year nominal mission, or the Prime Mission, Cassini made nine close targeted flybys of Enceladus (4x), Phoebe, Hyperion, Dione, Rhea and Iapetus. These moons were chosen as data from previous missions suggests they could hold the keys to understanding the Saturnian system and possibly the origins of the Solar System. Many distant flybys were made of other major moons. The varying inclination angle of Cassini's orbits allows studies of Saturn's polar regions in addition to the planet's equatorial zone.

Titan is the subject of close investigations by Cassini. During the Prime Mission, Cassini executed 45 targeted close flybys of Titan, coming to within 950 kilometres of the surface. These flybys allowed high-resolution mapping of Titan's surface with the Titan imaging radar instrument. The radar can penetrate the opaque haze covering the moon and provides vivid topographic maps of the surface. In turn these maps can be used in conjunction with the data returned from the Huygens probe to help build up a three-dimensional picture of Titan's surface and atmosphere.

Cassini's journey around Saturn for the Prime Mission was divided into 6 segments:

	Start date	End date	Orbits	Info
1.	Saturn Orbit Insertion and Probe Release
1.	1 July 2004	15 February 2005	A - 3	Details
2.	Occultation Sequence
2.	15 February 2005	7 September 2005	3 - 14	Details
3.	Petal Rotation and Magnetotail Petal
3.	7 September 2005	22 July 2006	14 - 26	Details
4.	Titan 180 Transfer
4.	22 July 2006	30 June 2007	26 - 47	Details
5.	Rotation / Icy Satellites
5.	30 June 2007	31 August 2007	47 - 49	Details
6.	High Inclination Sequence
6.	31 August 2007	1 July 2008	49 - 74	Details

Saturn Moon Encounters

Orbit	Moon	Encounter Date*	Altitude (km)	Info
2004
0	Phoebe	11 June	1997
A	Titan	26 October	1200	Details
B	Titan	13 December	1200	Details
B	Probe Release	25 December	n/a
2005
C	Iapetus	1 January	65 000
C	Titan	14 January	60 000	Details
3	Titan	15 February	1577	Details
3	Enceladus	17 February	1176
4	Enceladus	9 March	500
5	Titan	31 March	2402	Details
6	Titan	16 April	1025	Details
11	Enceladus	14 July	175
12	Mimas	2 August	48 842
13	Titan	22 August	3758	Details
14	Titan	7 September	1025	Details
15	Tethys	24 September	39 773	Details
15	Hyperion	26 September	1010	Details
16	Dione	11 October	500	Details
17	Titan	28 October	1451	Details
18	Rhea	26 November	500	Details
19	Titan	26 December	10 409	Details
2006
20	Titan	15 January	2043	Details
21	Helene	25 February	68 000
21	Titan	27 February	1813	Details
22	Titan	19 March	1951	Details
22	Rhea	21 March	82 000
23	Titan	30 April	1855	Details
24	Titan	20 May	1879	Details
24	Polydeuces	22 May	64 000
25	Titan	2 July	1906	Details
26	Titan	22 July	950	Details
26	Tethys	23 July	120 000
26	Telesto	24 July	45 000
27	Helene	17 August	49 000
28	Titan	7 September	1000	Details
28	Atlas	9 September	116 000
28	Methone	9 September	12 000
28	Calypso	9 September	109 000
28	Enceladus	9 September	40 000
29	Titan	23 September	960	Details
29	Methone	25 September	65 000
30	Titan	9 October	980	Details
31	Titan	25 October	1030	Details
31	Telesto	28 October	123 000
32	Enceladus	9 November	95 000
32	Calypso	9 November	112 000
33	Dione	21 November	72 000
34	Telesto	3 December	97 000
35	Titan	12 December	1000	Details
36	Titan	28 December	1300	Details
2007
37	Titan	13 January	1000	Details
38	Titan	29 January	2631	Details
39	Titan	22 February	1000	Details
40	Titan	10 March	980	Details
41	Titan	26 March	1010	Details
42	Titan	10 April	990	Details
43	Dione	24 April	114 000
43	Telesto	24 April	107 000
43	Titan	26 April	980	Details
44	Titan	12 May	960	Details
45	Tethys	26 May	97 000
45	Epimetheus	26 May	60 000
45	Titan	28 May	960	Details
46	Mimas	11 June	112 000
46	Atlas	12 June	34 000
46	Prometheus	12 June	70 000
46	Epimetheus	12 June	80 000
46	Methone	12 June	61 000
46	Titan	13 June	975	Details
47	Tethys	27 June	16 000
47	Methone	27 June	19 000
47	Mimas	27 June	98 000
47	Enceladus	28 June	89 000
47	Prometheus	28 June	39 000
47	Epimetheus	28 June	90 000
47	Rhea	28 June	105 000
47	Titan	29 June	1932	Details
48	Titan	19 July	1332	Details
48	Helene	20 July	36 000
48	Tethys	20 July	100 000
49	Tethys	29 August	53 000
49	Rhea	30 August	5116
49	Titan	31 August	3326	Details
49	Iapetus	10 September	1644
50	Dione	30 September	47 000
50	Tethys	30 September	119 000
50	Enceladus	30 September	98 000
50	Telesto	30 September	77 000
50	Titan	2 October	975	Details
51	Hyperion	21 October	121 000
51	Helene	23 October	25 000
51	Pallene	24 October	124 000
51	Prometheus	24 October	105 000
52	Rhea	16 November	91 000
52	Enceladus	17 November	113 000
52	Pandora	17 November	93 000
52	Pan	17 November	96 000
52	Epimetheus	17 November	99 000
52	Calypso	17 November	88 000
52	Titan	19 November	1000	Details
53	Mimas	3 December	84 000
53	Telesto	3 December	123 000
53	Epimetheus	3 December	9000
53	Titan	5 December	1300	Details
54	Titan	20 December	970	Details
2008
55	Dione	3 January	123 000
55	Pallene	3 January	103 000
55	Janus	3 January	116 000
55	Prometheus	3 January	112 000
55	Pandora	4 January	124 000
55	Titan	5 January	1010	Details
56	Methone	15 January	15 000
57	Atlas	27 January	70 000
57	Epimetheus	27 January	105 000
57	Prometheus	27 January	95 000
57	Pandora	27 January	115 000
58	Epimetheus	8 February	114 000
58	Pandora	8 February	116 000
58	Atlas	8 February	117 000
59	Pan	20 February	84 000
59	Prometheus	20 February	66 000
59	Pandora	20 February	64 000
59	Janus	20 February	101 000
59	Titan	22 February	950
60	Prometheus	2 March	98 000
61	Enceladus	12 March	52	Details
62	Pallene	23 March	33 000
62	Epimetheus	23 March	84 000
62	Methone	23 March	102 000
62	Titan	25 March	1000	Details
63	Pallene	1 April	105 000
63	Janus	1 April	117 000
64	Mimas	11 April	106 000
65	Mimas	20 April	116 000
65	Telesto	20 April	78 000
65	Epimetheus	20 April	119 000
66	Telesto	30 April	36 000
66	Pallene	30 April	92 000
67	Methone	10 May	96 000
67	Janus	10 May	122 000
67	Titan	12 May	1000	Details
68	Calypso	17 May	112 000
68	Methone	17 May	79 000
68	Epimetheus	18 May	99 000
69	Pallene	25 May	28 000
69	Atlas	25 May	61 000
69	Janus	25 May	64 000
69	Titan	28 May	1400	Details
70	Pallene	1 June	108 000
70	Janus	1 June	23 000
71	Pan	9 June	94 000
71	Pandora	9 June	85 000
72	Epimetheus	16 June	54 000
72	Prometheus	16 June	60 000
73	Atlas	23 June	121 000
73	Methone	23 June	90 000
73	Pan	23 June	90 000
74	Pan	30 June	94 000
74	Prometheus	30 June	29 000
74	Enceladus	30 June	101 000
74	Methone	30 June	118 000
74	Janus	30 June	69 000
74	Atlas	30 June	113 000

* The encounter date refers to the date of closest approach in UTC

Last Update: 07 Oct 2008

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