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Cassini Probe Does Titan Flyby

Posted by michael on from the wave-for-the-camera dept.

EccentricAnomaly writes "Today, Cassini had its first close encounter with Titan around 8:30AM PDT. Data from the flyby will start coming down around 6:30PM PDT, and you can watch the pictures live on NASA TV. If you want higher resolution or just to stare at one picture for a while, the raw images will be put on the web right away, with pretty press images to follow the next day. And if you want to know about the observations planned for the flyby, you can read this PDF or watch this animation."

115 comments

  1. 4Gbit Solid State Recorders by fembots · · Score: 5, Interesting

    From NASA's faq - "Cassini stores the gathered information on two Solid State Recorders (SSR) with a combined capacity of 4 gigabits, about the volume of a compact disk (500MB)."

    It seems scientists are pretty confident that they can unload much data during Cassini's 9 hours downlink session.

    Imagine if there were some downtimes when earth communication cannot be established for a couple of days...

    --
    Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
    1. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by roman_mir · · Score: 0

      Yeah, the next probes sent to space really should use microdrives for backup at least. I mean, put an IPod on a probe and not only will the probe be able to store tens of GBs of data, but it could even play MP3s on a simulated speaker through the entire mission. Besides, if a probe finds a representative of an intelligent race out there, it could use its IPod to swap music.

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
    2. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Macphisto · · Score: 5, Funny
      Imagine if there were some downtimes when earth communication cannot be established for a couple of days...

      Good Lord, man! What in blazes are you planning?

    3. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Bill G. said: "4Gbit Solid State Recorders should be enough for everybody."

    4. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by badfrog · · Score: 5, Informative

      Interference has always been a huge factor, the Space Shuttle still used iron-core memory in its systems in the late 80s, because it wasn't affected by radiation. Can't just pop in some SDRAM and expect it to work out there.

    5. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by HunahpuMonkey · · Score: 5, Informative

      > From NASA's faq - "Cassini stores the gathered information on two Solid State Recorders (SSR)
      > with a combined capacity of 4 gigabits, about the volume of a compact disk (500MB)."
      >
      > It seems scientists are pretty confident that they can unload much data during Cassini's 9 hours
      > downlink session.
      >
      > Imagine if there were some downtimes when earth communication cannot be established
      > for a couple of days...

      According to CNN that very problem exists. The buffers in those recorders are in danger of writing over the data before it can sucessfully be sent to Earth.

      "The flyby of Titan was expected to go smoothly in space, but bad weather on Earth could affect Cassini's transmissions to the Deep Space Network, scientists said.

      Cassini has only one chance to send data back to Earth before it is overwritten with data from its next set of observations, scientists said."

    6. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by jnik · · Score: 2, Insightful
      It seems scientists are pretty confident that they can unload much data during Cassini's 9 hours downlink session.

      Imagine if there were some downtimes when earth communication cannot be established for a couple of days...

      What would more storage buy you? It wouldn't increase the downlink bandwidth, and there's only so much time available to transfer it down, so you'd just get further and further behind. Losing downlink time means losing data, period.

      Telemetry bandwidth is always an issue; instruments always produce data at a rate greater than can be sent to the ground.

    7. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Rei · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not *always*. When Cassini isn't doing an encounter, it's sitting around doing pretty much nothing (regular bits of telemetry data, random readings, occasional snaps of Saturn or distant shots of moons, etc). Greater storage space, even if not accompanied by an increased bandwidth improvement, allow you to gather more data from your insturments during flybys, which you can transmit during the less-important inter-flyby periods.

      --
      POTUS Witch Hunt tracker: 75 charges filed against 19 witches, 4 witches cooperating and 5 witches have pled guilty.
    8. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by deglr6328 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I can see how you might fit the images, spectra and other data in 500MB of storage but how do they fit the synthetic aperture radar data in there? It must be huge!.....anyone know?

      --
      - "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
    9. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      Yes. It's EZW-encoded based on the time and the shifted return frequency. It's only about 2.4 MB per minute.

      http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/encoding.c fm

    10. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by djvern · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, we have a saying: "The rain in Spain falls mainly on DSS-63" The rain is a very large concern for everyone here tonight. We have already requested a backup downlink session tomorrow in case of problems tonite. Basically, we stole a 70 meter antenna from another project. The critical data will make it down at the end of the Madrid pass, as there is dual coverage with a 34 meter Goldstone, CA station. Best of luck.

    11. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, the next probes sent to space really should use microdrives for backup at least. I mean, put an IPod on a probe and not only will the probe be able to store tens of GBs of data, but it could even play MP3s on a simulated speaker through the entire mission. Besides, if a probe finds a representative of an intelligent race out there, it could use its IPod to swap music.

      This is why NASA does not hire 14-year-olds.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    12. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by jnik · · Score: 3, Informative
      When Cassini isn't doing an encounter, it's sitting around doing pretty much nothing

      Hardly true. Now, granted, I don't have the Cassini instrument duty-cycle schedule right here, but I can at least take a quick look at the projected orbit plots. It looks like apicenter is about 60-70 Rs. Frontside magnetopause distance is 20-25 Rs (roughly), the flanks are likely further out, and I'd put money on the tail extending at least 70 Rs. Even on the front side I'm sure there's plenty of science to be done in the sheath, bow shock, and even upstream solar wind.

      So the plasma instruments and magnetometer would be busy for probably half the distance of each orbit. I imagine the cosmic dust analyzer is probably useful the whole time, and the UV cameras (I'm too lazy to compare the resolution to Hubble...). That's a lot of data.

      And it really does come down pretty slow. At 35 kbit/s, that's roughly a day and a half, best case, to empty the recorders, out of approximately two weeks for an orbit (not always being in "view", either, and the DSN sometimes needed for other things...).

      I'm sure somebody would find some use for extra storage if it were there, but the limitation doesn't mean Cassini's spending any great amount of time idle.

    13. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Rei · · Score: 1

      You *can* fill up the link with whatever you want. But having up-to-the-second telemetry and magnetosphere readings has a much lower priority than getting all of the data you can from a brief but incredibly valuable flyby.

      --
      POTUS Witch Hunt tracker: 75 charges filed against 19 witches, 4 witches cooperating and 5 witches have pled guilty.
    14. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Rei · · Score: 1

      Ok, now *that* is just funny.

      3 people modded that "informative"? Even the link is fake.

      Mental note for the future: on Slashdot, you can make up whatever you want, as long as it *sounds* educated.

      --
      POTUS Witch Hunt tracker: 75 charges filed against 19 witches, 4 witches cooperating and 5 witches have pled guilty.
    15. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by arose · · Score: 1

      On /., Star Trek and almost anywhere else.

      --
      Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
    16. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      the next probes sent to space really should use microdrives for backup
      (You are probably being facetious, but in case you aren't...) Disk drives won't work in the vacuum od space, because air is needed to keep the heads flying above the disk surface. I suppose that the drives could be sealed in an airtight container, but that's extra weight. Also, you would need two of them mounted face-to-face so that the gyroscopic effects of the spinning disks would be cancelled out.
    17. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
      You clearly don't know anything about electronics/systems that operate in space. IPods would quickly broke because:
      1. Temperatures ranging from -200 C to 300 C (at least)
      2. Sound pressure and shaking during a launch
      3. Malfunctioning of electronics caused by cosmic rays and solar wind
      Additionally, every gram which NASA sends to the orbit costs a LOT of cash. Materials/design of IPod would weight too much and take too much space.
    18. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by r_j_howell · · Score: 1

      The guy I took my first UNIX class from worked at NASA as a computer operator when he was 15. To hear his side of the story, *he* is the reason why NASA doesn't hire teenagers.

    19. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      Geez, can't a 28 year old post a stupid joke once in a while?

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
    20. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by roman_mir · · Score: 1

      Dude, lay of the pipe, this obviously would have to be a new an improved - IPod Space Model

      --
      You can't handle the truth.
    21. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 1

      So the plasma instruments and magnetometer would be busy for probably half the distance of each orbit. I imagine the cosmic dust analyzer is probably useful the whole time, and the UV cameras (I'm too lazy to compare the resolution to Hubble...). That's a lot of data.

      These measurements aren't data intensive, and they don't fill up the SAR.

      The problem is Titan encounters are followed immdiately by Saturn periapses.... both of which generate lots of data. If you decide to keep Titan data to download a second time that means you have to throw away some other important measuremnt of Saturn, the rings, or one of the other moons.

      But that's what you get with spacecraft. Their computers and data storage always lag behind. Cassini was launched 7 years ago, it was designed 14 years ago... and when it was designed it had to use rad hardened electronics which lag behind comsumer electronics.

      --
      There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
    22. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Yeah, the next probes sent to space really should use microdrives for backup at least. I mean, put an IPod on a probe and not only will the probe be able to store tens of GBs of data, but it could even play MP3s on a simulated speaker through the entire mission. Besides, if a probe finds a representative of an intelligent race out there, it could use its IPod to swap music.

      This is why NASA does not hire 14-year-olds.

      This is why /.ers don't understand humour.
    23. Re:4Gbit Solid State Recorders by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Geez, can't a 28 year old post a stupid joke once in a while?

      Sure, but you must be prepared for a swarm of grumpy moderators.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  2. welll by Anubis350 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    isnt titan saturns 3rd moon? if so, isnt this..... yup you guessed it, "Close encounters of the third kind" ::ducks::

    --
    "goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
    1. Re:welll by pedroloco · · Score: 2, Informative

      If you're counting moons outwards from Saturn (or, more precisely, in order of increasing orbital semi-major axis length), Titan is more like the 19th moon (or 15th if 4 recently discovered moons are excluded).

    2. Re:welll by ookabooka · · Score: 1

      So. . .Earth is the 3rd planet from the sun, and I am currently a lot closer to the Earth than any other planet, does that make it also "Close encounters of the third kind" or would it not qualify because it is more permanent and not quite an "encounter"?

      --
      If you are about to mod me down, keep in mind that this post was most likely sarcastic.
  3. Links to the actual Quicktime and GIF files by waynegoode · · Score: 5, Informative
    The links on the webpage open pop-up windows to show the video. You can't right click and save the files. I did a little right-clicking and source viewing and found the URLs of the actual files.
    1. Re:Links to the actual Quicktime and GIF files by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So who wants to place their odds as to whether Titan has liquid on its surface? :) I'll give a 40% chance that there's liquid.

  4. 4 Gig recorders by Baumann · · Score: 3, Interesting

    They have to be confident. If the system goes for N days without contact, I suspect they'll have far greater worries than just overfull download buffers. Say like - why isn't our little lost machine talking to us?

    1. Re:4 Gig recorders by Timesprout · · Score: 1

      Of course they are confident, theres an emule client on board connected to DonkeyServer 27

      --
      Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
      What truth?
      There is no dupe
  5. The raw pictures will be put up right away? by Dancin_Santa · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What if they spy aliens? Won't that cause a little alarm amongst the general population?

    1. Re:The raw pictures will be put up right away? by punkin · · Score: 1

      Dancin Santa worrying about little green men? ;-)

    2. Re:The raw pictures will be put up right away? by imsabbel · · Score: 0

      Or what if god just appeared in new york and re-errected the twin towers? Imagine the shock and awe!!!
      (some questions are really dumb. mine was, yours too)

      --
      HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
    3. Re:The raw pictures will be put up right away? by mikael · · Score: 4, Funny

      What if they spy aliens? Won't that cause a little alarm amongst the general population?

      No, the central government of Titan have contingency plans to reassure the Titanian public that anything they see is merely a weather balloon, a stray asteroid or a reflection of Venus.

      --
      Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
    4. Re:The raw pictures will be put up right away? by Pleione · · Score: 1

      The only difference between the two questions are the entities involved. Extraterrestrial life most likely exists. "God" is somewhat doubtful.

    5. Re:The raw pictures will be put up right away? by MalachiConstant · · Score: 1

      I hope they can see me from way up there. It's been so lonely since Salo left. Take me back to Indiana you bastards! (if you don't recognize my nick, never mind.)

  6. The animation link web page, I meant to say by waynegoode · · Score: 2, Informative
    I am refering to the last link, the one about animations, http://ciclops.lpl.arizona.edu/view.php?id=500

    Sorry I left that out.

  7. Aliens by Indy+Media+Watch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I understand from the webpage that NASA TV can be received by anyone with a satellite decoder and presumably TV stations to rebroadcast images.

    They include "live mission feeds" and live images that we can see from the Cassini prove.

    Knowing NASA's lineage, is there any form of delay applied to these 'live' feeds? Or could we one day see something which may otherwise be classified (alien waving at the camera, dead astronaut) on the screen in real-time?

    --

    Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet

    1. Re:Aliens by jerichohol · · Score: 0

      There is no conspiracy, even if we see an alien waving at the camera, we should take it as face value just like the landing of the moon.

      Come on there is no why that studio looked real

    2. Re:Aliens by NarrMaster · · Score: 1

      Ever been to the moon? Do you know what the moon's surface looks like when you're on it? How do you know what it doesn't look like?

      /thinks you guys need to loosen the tinfoil.

      --
      That's right. All your base.
    3. Re:Aliens by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well normally when pixar do the special effects for these missions there are no issues. I believe the faking effects for this mission have been outsourced to Bollywood due to budget constraints so please dont be alarmed if the mission actually turns out to be a love story between Cassini and Hygens and several hirsuite men in colourful outfits burst into a song and dance routine halfway through it.

      --
      Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
      What truth?
      There is no dupe
    4. Re:Aliens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Show me a government agency where policy dictates a broadcast delay on the off chance of spotting an alien and I'll show you NASA headed by Jerry Falwell. Wait, another four years of Bush coming up ... it could happen!

    5. Re:Aliens by Rei · · Score: 1

      Oh great... faith based rocketry....

      Jerry: "Hey, Pat! Jesus told me to have the engineers pressurize the oxygen lines with hot hydrogen from the high pressure turbopump now. It's lighter."

      Pat: "Just a minute, Jerry. I'm busy having my people strip all of the insulation off the wires on the craft to save weight. The Lord will protect us from it sparking over..."

      --
      POTUS Witch Hunt tracker: 75 charges filed against 19 witches, 4 witches cooperating and 5 witches have pled guilty.
    6. Re:Aliens by Forbman · · Score: 1

      I have been. It really is the consistency of crusty snow, with a light green palor to it. I took a chunk into my rollagon, and it tasted a bit like...well...chicken, which I thought was a bit odd.

    7. Re:Aliens by Nehi+the+Ganchark · · Score: 1

      Even though the chances are remote, finding undeniable evidence of alien life on Titan will forever change how we look at the universe and how life actually works. Suppose there is something alive on Titan... what is its biochemical makeup? How does it metabolize? Reproduce? If there is something there, it'll be quite unlike anything we've ever encountered.

      It would be interesting to see the general political, scientific, and public reaction here on Earth if the Huygens probe due to be released in January manages to snap an image of a gaping maw full of teeth just before it goes silent...

    8. Re:Aliens by at_18 · · Score: 1

      "Live" means live from the control room. There isn't any realtime video camera on the Cassini.

      The images come from something like a CCD photocamera optimized for astronomical observation. They are saved on an internal memory buffer and transmitted back several hours or even days later. Even if there's some ET waving at it, Cassini would probably not even see it.

    9. Re:Aliens by xXunderdogXx · · Score: 1

      Speaking of live satellite video feeds check out the movie Spin.

  8. ObStarWars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's no moon....

  9. CNN Story Link by Makoto916 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Here is a link to a CNN story that also has a nice video animation link of the event.

    Can't wait until Virgin Galactic offers rides out there! :)

  10. sci.space.news by noselasd · · Score: 4, Informative

    Subject: Cassini Image: Eyes on Xanadu
    From: baalke@earthlink.net (Ron)
    Newsgroups: sci.space.news
    Followup-To: sci.space.policy
    Date: 26 Oct 2004 09:25:07 -0700

    http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/multim ed ia/pia06107.html

    Eyes on Xanadu
    October 25, 2004

    Cassini image of Titan, revealing the bright continent-sized terrain
    known as Xanadu

    This image taken on Oct. 24, 2004, reveals Titan's bright
    "continent-sized" terrain known as Xanadu. It was acquired with the
    narrow angle camera on Cassini's imaging science subsystem through a
    spectral filter centered at 938 nanometers, a wavelength region at which
    Titan's surface can be most easily detected. The surface is seen at a
    higher contrast than in previously released imaging science subsystem
    images due to a lower phase angle (Sun-Titan-Cassini angle), which
    minimizes scattering by the haze.

    The image shows details about 10 times smaller than those seen from
    Earth. Surface materials with different brightness properties (or
    albedos) rather than topographic shading are highlighted. The image has
    been calibrated and slightly enhanced for contrast. It will be further
    processed to reduce atmospheric blurring and to optimize mapping of
    surface features. The origin and geography of Xanadu remain mysteries at
    this range. Bright features near the south pole (bottom) are clouds. On
    Oct. 26, Cassini will acquire images of features in the central-left
    portion of this image from a position about 100 times closer.

    The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
    European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion
    Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in
    Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission
    Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard
    cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team
    is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo.

    For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, visit
    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov and the
    Cassini imaging team home page, http://ciclops.org

    Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute

    And

    Cassini-Huygens makes first close approach to Titan

    Today the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini-Huygens spacecraft makes a fly-by of Saturn's
    largest moon Titan - the closest ever performed.

    Read more:
    http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens /SEMB2E 0A90E_0.html

  11. Bad idea. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    What would the aliens think if they get a peace offering of music, only to get sued by RIAA shortly thereafter?

  12. Not to worry... by loteck · · Score: 1

    There's no stars, so the pictures are obviously being faked from a studio in New Mexico.

  13. good flavor by Striker770S · · Score: 4, Interesting

    it seems that everybody is looking at mars and wondering why are space program is not really doing too much. Its good to show the public the vast and very unique moons of the gas giants. I am looking forward to see if they are going to do a "fly by" on the moon with the completely water frozen surface, orbiting jupiter (or maybe it was saturn). as long as NASA doesnt screw up and place anything backwards or messes up on unit conversions, then they have my support again!

    --
    I thought what I'd do was, I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes. - Catcher in the Rye
    1. Re:good flavor by red+floyd · · Score: 2, Informative

      n the moon with the completely water frozen surface, orbiting jupiter (or maybe it was saturn)

      Europa, the second Galilean moon (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto).

      --
      The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
    2. Re:good flavor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize we're landing on Titan, not just flying by?

    3. Re:good flavor by Bhalash · · Score: 1

      Actually the already are planning it with the JIMO probe-http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/22/jupi ter_probe/

    4. Re:good flavor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      it seems that everybody is looking at mars and wondering why are space program is not really doing too much

      Nobody's doing too much because the rest of the Solar System is a dead wasteland. If Mars had something to offer, then we'd see all the world's powers scrambling to get first dibs. The best use of resources at this point would be to continue improving new launch/reentry technology and perfecting space stations.

  14. OK... by OccidentalSlashy · · Score: 1

    The sound of Cassini flying by Titan: :)

    --
    vicious, untreated political sewage...niche entertainment for the spiritually unattractive...worshipless pap
  15. Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've been looking forward to watching NASA TV for the Titan fly-by for some time now. The stream is about to get Slashdotted. :(

  16. Xanadu by TiggertheMad · · Score: 1

    Aliens are the least of NASA's worries. If the scientologist lawyers hear about the probe, expect a lawsuit...

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
    1. Re:Xanadu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that where they keep Xenu trapped by laser beams to prevent those nasty thetans from getting to us?

      /can't believe Catherine Bell is a scientologist. Posting Anon to prevent harm to my person.

  17. Also sampling Titan's atmosphere... by jangobongo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not only will the Cassini be taking pictures, but its ion and neutral mass spectrometer will "scoop up" and sample Titan's atmosphere as it passes at a distance of 1,200 kilometers (745 miles).

    "One important goal of this flyby is to confirm scientists' model of Titan's atmosphere to prepare for the Huygens probe descent," according to this article at SpaceDaily.com.

    --

    Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
    1. Re:Also sampling Titan's atmosphere... by djvern · · Score: 1

      Attitude Control Systems (ACS) has data already showing a drag torque from Titan's atmosphere. Too awesome.

  18. Wrong.. =) by Gentlewhisper · · Score: 0

    "640kb of ram should be enough for any satelite"

    --
    Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
  19. Titanian? by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes but rumors will spread like wildfire on the Titanian internet. Which the Titanians will be browsing with their Apple Titanian powerbooks.....

    1. Re:Titanian? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait that's not right.. their governments are restricting information about the existance of the alien world they bought all their computers from?

      Perhaps they would be interested in holding onto part of the lottery winnings I have found but must put somewhere else for a few days...

  20. raw images by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The raw images may be higher resolution but guess what....they are also "raw"! That means they haven't been processed yet. The image data isn't very useful unless you have the necessary parameters / algorithms to process the data.

    There will be several steps in processing the image data, bad pixel correction (I guess these CCDs should have very few); white/black balance; tonal / grey calibration; others? I'd be surprised if there weren't a few others.

    I guess the white/black balance is the most important thing I mentioned ....responsiveness accross the CCD won't be the same and must be compensated for. I don't know if they've got a seperate grey calibration step (you'd need calibration data to reproduce it)....you could fiddle with tone curves yourself to make stuff pleasing to the eye / see different stuff.

    Can anyone supply more details on the calibration?

    So far as I know it's not worth downloading the raw images unless you want to exercise some bandwidth....I think that Nasa might give out the calibration data to some people (remember British scientists discovering possible new moon?)....Anyone know all the ins and outs?

    1. Re:raw images by H01M35 · · Score: 3, Informative
      From the FAQ
      Why does the contrast look different between images?

      The camera measures light from an object at each point in an image and assigns it a number from zero to 4095 depending on its brightness. Sometimes the scientist can't afford to send this amount of data for each pixel because of the amount of storage it takes. The camera has the ability to convert this range of values to those from zero to 255. The camera does this according to a preset table of values designed by the scientists. This table devotes many of the 256 levels for less bright things and less levels for brighter pixels. Part of calibrating an image on the ground is to reverse this table and get back pixels in the range of zero to 4095. Because you're looking at the raw data, images sent back in this mode will have dimmer things look brighter compared to the brighter parts of the image than in images not in this mode.

      Why does the image look bizarre/psychedelic?

      As in the previous question, the other way the camera can send back less data (by sending pixels with values from zero to 255 instead of zero to 4095) is to send back only the lower binary digits of the number. This is like having a list of amounts of money and only recording the amount of cents for each one and assigning the brightness in an image to the amount of leftover cents. Pixels with brightness values just under 255, like amounts just under a dollar, will appear almost white, while pixel values just over 255, like amounts just over a dollar with not many cents, will appear dark. The ideal use of this mode is for image scenes that are dark with almost all of the pixel values less than 255. If the scene is simple with gradual increases in brightness, then even if the original values get over 255 and go dark again, the scientists can figure out what the real value was. If the scene is very complicated or the original values are much brighter than 255, the image can have many bright and dark transitions with strange contours. In this case, the image will look very bizarre but not have much scientific value.

      Seems like they want more detail in the dimmer areas. There's also an interesting look at the filter combinations that they can use.
  21. Life on Europa? by CRepetski · · Score: 2, Informative

    A flyby of the second Galilean moon could prove to be especially beneficial, as it has some of the most favorable conditions for life (or past life) in our solar system.

    1. Re:Life on Europa? by another_henry · · Score: 1

      Not that favourable. Radiation from Jupiter's equivalent of the Van Allen belts gives a dose of about 600 Rem/day on Europa (a certain lethal dose for a human). Admittedly it's a far cry from the 45000Rem/hour a spacecraft would catch orbiting in the middle of the Jovian magnetosphere, and perhaps simple life could handle a few rays.

      --
      "Studies have shown that people who eat peanuts live longer than those who do not eat."
  22. Really Glad NASA didn't screw up this one!!!! by woodsrunner · · Score: 0, Troll

    The cassini launch was a big controversy since if it blew up before leaving the atmosphere it would have been enough explosives to blow the earth up leaving Mars as the third planet from the sun....

    glad they used the right "O" rings!

    The hubris of the whole mission leaves me ambivilant about the accomplishment.

    1. Re:Really Glad NASA didn't screw up this one!!!! by Silverlancer · · Score: 2, Informative

      Not exactly. Cassini isn't the first mission to use a nuclear power system first of all, and second of all if it did explode there would be no explosion and the radioactivity would be spread so much that it would be lost among Earth's background radiation. Read up before you comment.

    2. Re:Really Glad NASA didn't screw up this one!!!! by woodsrunner · · Score: 1


      if it did explode there would be no explosion

      Good double speak! Who do you work for, InSoc?

      I did read up before the launch and I couldn't help wondering how this sort of thing could be justified. It broke international space treaties signed by the US and its danger was far under reported.

      If it had blown up it would have been the worst ecological disaster caused by humans.

      Even the most optimistic worst case scenario would have the Titan rocket ( a rocket with a 10% failure rate ) blowing up over Africa, Madagascar and/or New Zeland distributing only 30-60% of the 72 lbs of Plutonium Pu-238 across this area.

      So maybe the claims that Cassini would have blown up the world were overstated tinfoil hat paranoia, I certainly wouldn't have wanted to see the best worst case scenario either: exploding without an explosion distributing 22 pounds of highly radioactive material dispersed in inhalable particles less than 10 microns (These figures are from pages 4-51 of the June 1995 EIS)across some of the most fertile regions of the earth and transmitting lethal cancer to any creature unfortunate to breathe even one particle.

      No I am probably overblowing the danger. The risk is well worth the gigs of data we may or may never receive. I trust NASA.

    3. Re:Really Glad NASA didn't screw up this one!!!! by Squiffy · · Score: 0
      glad they used the right "O" rings!"

      If everything goes right we'll be showing Titan our "O" rings. O! O!

    4. Re:Really Glad NASA didn't screw up this one!!!! by Yazeran · · Score: 1

      Actually as i recall, the plutonium thermal generators (or was there only one i dont remember) was designed to withstand a large degree of abuse. Remember that when a launch vhiacle 'explodes' it realy is 'just' a fast combustion and not a detonation.

      The net effect of this is that well shielded (in a mechnical sense) components survive such explosions (as dramatically observed in the challenger disaster, where the crew cabin survived almost intact untill it hit the water some 5 mins later, possibly with survived crewmembers up to that point).

      The plutonium thermal generators on Cassini would have survived such a disaster and likely landed intact. Although you would likely need special cleanup crews in case the containers had fractured on hitting the earth the plutonium would not be dispersed in small breathable particles.

      Yours Yazeran

      Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.

    5. Re:Really Glad NASA didn't screw up this one!!!! by cdipierr · · Score: 1

      Excepting of course, that you're wrong. Cassini violated no treaties because it's not using a nuclear reactor, it's using an RTG generator. This means that the plutonium is decaying, and in the process creating heat. This heat is used to generate electricity. There is, however, no fission reactor like you'd find in a power plant. This technology has been in use since the 1960s.

      The 72 pounds of plutonium were also encased in a storage device that is designed not to break apart in the case of explosion. This was verified both through testing and through the fact that at least one other probe using the same technology actually did have a catastrophic failure and the RTG returned to Earth intact.

      Now, I guess we could argue this point, but it's one of those things where either you trust engineering or you don't, but if you don't trust engineering and science, there are a heck of a lot of things you should be worrying more about than Cassini.

  23. I want my Goop! by Tablizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is cool. It is a map pointing out where the lander is targeted. The map was made from prior flybys and also shows where today's mission is to image.

    If the dark stuff really is liquid goop, as some speculate, I wish they would target a little to the north to land right in the stuff and float. I would much rather see images from floating on a lake of goop than yet more rocks. We got enough of rocks from Mars, Venus, the moon, and Eros. Time for liguid landings. Please NASA, retarget for the sake of Goop!

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:I want my Goop! by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

      They've done some preliminary image processing. Here is an example. Notice the crisp boundaries in the third image. It looks just like a water (liquid) boundary. Dust or rocks rarely have such distinct boundaries of color for this much area. This adds to the hydrocarbon lake theories. This is so cool!

      However, it still means that the probe may land on an oval-shaped island (matching it with the prior map), which would be a bit of a disappointment, as described above. NASA, please target the damned liquid! The probe is designed to float.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:I want my Goop! by tigersha · · Score: 1

      Why? THe probe may be designed to float but there is almost certainly more to see on solid surface than a in a homogenous pool of liquid!

      --
      The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
    3. Re:I want my Goop! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Why? THe probe may be designed to float but there is almost certainly more to see on solid surface than a in a homogenous pool of liquid!

      I disagree. Rocks are *not* what is special about Titan. There are dozens of other planets and moons with rocks and soil. Been there done that.

      A extraterrestrial ocean would be a fantistic sight, even if it is not exactly postcard-ready. It is a one-of-a-kind.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    4. Re:I want my Goop! by tigersha · · Score: 1

      Uhm, have you ever been on a ship in the middle of the ocean? It is a one-of-a-kind sight. In fact, its bloody boring because its the same in ALL directions!

      --
      The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
    5. Re:I want my Goop! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      Uhm, have you ever been on a ship in the middle of the ocean? It is a one-of-a-kind sight. In fact, its bloody boring because its the same in ALL directions!

      Not if it is the first time you see it on another world. A bunch of rocks get boring after a while also.

      By the way, scientist say that waves on Titan may be huge but slow-moving because of the weaker gravity. I doubt we'll see anything that dramatic from this mission, but there are some incredible possibilities on Titan.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
  24. Holy Shit!!! by Thaidog · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's the death star! Red Alert!
    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi ?path=.. /multimedia/images/large-moons/images/image17.jpg& type=image

    --

    ||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

    1. Re:Holy Shit!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was waiting for someone to make death star jokes.

      your url didn't copy well so here it is again:
      that's no small moon.

    2. Re:Holy Shit!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cmdr Riker: "Shields up! Rrrred alert!"

  25. Mod me troll but... by macz · · Score: 2
    There comes a point when I hope that robot spacecraft like this fail and the logical conclusion is that "Well... I guess we will have to send people."

    I am glad that our knowledge is expanding by orders of magnitude, but inwardly I long for a vast open ocean (of space) being the only thing separating us from a "new world" where we can go, colonize, and spread the virus of humanity before we kill ouseleves living in our own filth.

    Naturally it will be a robot that finds this new world first, but there is just some atavistic, medieval reaction to the idea that a robot is our emmisary to the stars.

    --
    ...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
    1. Re:Mod me troll but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      There is a plan made up by some NASA engineers called HOPE, which would be a manned mission to Callisto in 2045. Sadly I don't think it will happen, at least not that soon, but one could hope, right? At least it shows that these people are thinking about something more than just moon and mars... even though we don't have permanent settlements on either one, we will, and when we do, it's good to have some plans on what to do next. Colonization of Callisto and perhaps Ganymede would be beautiful.

  26. THANK YOU! by GPS+Pilot · · Score: 1

    n/t What does "n/t" mean, anyway?

    --
    That that is is that that that that is not is not.
    1. Re:THANK YOU! by pediddle · · Score: 1

      No text.

  27. You guys fried their new supercomputer! by iamlucky13 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    NASA just finished building their new supercomputer, and it's already been slashdotted. Actually, the second try worked, but the first one gave me a server busy message.

    The NASA TV feed is pretty interesting. They just went through a series of photos from one of the cameras taking shots at different wavelengths which very dramatically displayed the effect of wavelength "windows." They also mentioned that they sampled the upper atmosphere on the way through, so maybe there will be something interesting to tell as a result of that.

  28. coastline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    To me... some of thoe images look pretty damn much like an obvious goop > land coastline... but also.... look closely in the dark goop.... see those bright rings? Only thing I've seen like that before would be atolls. We all know what that means.

    1. Re:coastline by freddled · · Score: 1

      My first thought too . . . http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/gs2.cgi?path=.. /multimedia/images/titan/images/pia-titan-1-2.jpg& type=image . . . There is a regular ring on the 'land' side too, but my instinct tells me that these are camera or image processing artefacts. The interface between the light and dark, though, looks exactly like a coastline with islands and indentations formed by wave/tide action. It could be dark terrain overlaid with ice or clouds or both. You have to be careful to understand what light and dark actually mean - I don't know what wavelengths these were taken at but if the camera is optimised to see through methane/hydrocarbon smog then that would appear darkest. If the dark part is a liquid ocean then why does the top right show up as so hazy? I'm more interested in the rings. The obvious one is associated with an indentation in the coast to its 'north'. If you go left from there, there is another one much fainter but that is associated with a diffuse 'stain' or pan of material and also has a 'coastal' feature to its north. Intriguing.

    2. Re:coastline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I swear I see a face in picture #4596. I bet it was put there by colonists from the Mars Face civilization. Undisputable evidence of extraterrestrial intelligent life.

  29. No siren jokes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Doesn't anybody read Vonnegut anymore?

  30. Umm... What's the circular shape in this image? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anyone else think the circular shape in this image is a little too... umm... circular? What could that thing be?

    http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw /c asJPGFullS05/N00023162.jpg

    1. Re:Umm... What's the circular shape in this image? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A crater?

    2. Re:Umm... What's the circular shape in this image? by g4n0n · · Score: 1

      I'd assume it's some form of calibration mark. Since it's on alot of the other images aswell.

    3. Re:Umm... What's the circular shape in this image? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is dust on the camera lens.

      Read the FAQ on the image archive.

  31. all planets are ours! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Monolith's be damned. Next stop: Europa!

  32. put a DSS receiver in orbit? by nounderscores · · Score: 1

    With all the orbiting equipment we've shot up there over the years, why not a powerful radio antenna, with huge memory storage.

    It doesn't have to go very far from earth's surface, so the fuel costs will be lower than sending rad-shielded hard drives to saturn.

  33. uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    hate to burst your bubble, but disk drives are already hermetically sealed. otherwise you'd be getting head crashes all the time.

    1. Re:uh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Hmmm I was wondering if changing the gas inside would help performance / reliability / heat

    2. Re:uh... by orkysoft · · Score: 1

      Hate to burst your bubble, but harddrives have a small breathing hole on their cases, which must be kept unobstructed.

      --

      I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
  34. Leave me alone! by MalachiConstant · · Score: 1
    First I get my memory erased, then I get sent all over the solar system, THEN I become an object of scorn for the whole world.

    When I finally get some peace and quit out here on Titan you bastards send probes to look at me.

    Go look for Mr. Rumfoord! Leave me alone!

    (If you don't recognize my nick ignore me.)

  35. I can see by FraggedSquid · · Score: 1

    The moat around Marvin the Martians holiday home

    --
    You don't need a lab to make mud.
  36. Looks like they by advocate_one · · Score: 1

    remembered to take the lens cap off...

    --
    Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
  37. Not like your digital camera by mdp1173 · · Score: 1
    Space probes don't send back jpegs or gifs. The images have to be assembled and processed to remove compression artifacts and "hot spots" where an errant gamma ray or ion hit a CCD and caused a big bright spot.

    There will always be a delay between the raw data is recieved through the Deep Space Network and when it will show up on a computer screen at JPL because it has to be properly assembled. Not tin foil (I hate that term...it's actually aluminum foil) hat stuff, just the nature of the game.

  38. motion and angle correction by peter303 · · Score: 1

    They'll warp this image to to some regular map projection. The motion of the space craft and oblique angle of the camera on some of the shots are corrected for. This particularly noticeable on raw Mars orbitor pics.

  39. CSI by Fortran+IV · · Score: 1

    So, has NASA posted any pictures of Winston Niles Rumfoord or his dog yet?

    --
    I figure by 2030 or so my 6-digit UID will be something to brag about.
  40. Really Glad you cleared this up!!!! by woodsrunner · · Score: 1

    Between Yazeran's (http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=127215&cid=10 651046) and cdipierr's posts I have to admit I was going on bad info. At Cassini's launch time I had read so much of the dangers in the press yet nowhere did any of these articles (and I stick to mainstream press for the most part) was the NASA viewpoint allowed to be voiced as clearly and comprehensively as these two posts.

    Thank you.