Could CASSINI orbit Titan?

I know the Cassini spacecraft is planned to orbit the Saturnian system for 4 years in all,
But if it still has power after that and can go on longer(Like the Mars Rovers)...Is it technically feasible for it to be placed in orbit around Titan?
It's radar mapping instruments would surely then be of great significance.

Just a thought.

Cassini uses plutonium isotope battery that burns out....

Too far away from sun for solarpanels and renewable energy, Cassini would have to be much bigger, like Prometheus to house a fully fledged nuclear reactor, wich would give it a lifespan of decades...

Maybe if they build probes with electrodynamic tethers to use slingshot maneuvers around jupiter for catching electricity instead of speed....With a smart flightplan, this probe could be monitoring several planets until it breaks down.


[edit on 4-3-2005 by Countermeasures]

It probably could.
Depends on the amount of Fuel available for trajectory adjustments.

OR, to use less fuel, It could tweak it's trajectory by using the gravity of other moons to slow it down...There probablt isn't enough fuel to make the changes in direction.

However, the second option would take a lot of time, and like Countermeasures mentioned, there is limited time with no renewable energy.

Does anyone remember the tethered satellite experiment?
The one that broke free from the shuttle? Too much juice! All generated
by passing this tether through the Earths magnetic field.

Saturn has a huge Magnetosphere. hmm...Power source? renewable?
I would guess that with more research, it may be possible to generate power using this same idea..This would work at Jupiter too..A short tether moving through the planets magnetic field could generate plenty of power.

Not meaning to sound rude, but why would we want Cassini to orbit Titan when Huygens is on the surface?

www.nasa.gov...

Well, you would at least want Cassini to make several Titan Flyby, because the probe could either make large wide view shots with low resolution or very detailed resolution of much smaller areas, in wich case you would need more turns to cover the complete planet.

Cassini is allraedy planning to do multiple fly bys of Titian. What scientist really want to do is give it a more polar orbit around saturn.

also if they wanted cassini to orbit titian, it is probly too late now. Titian just doesn't have the same gravity pull that Saturn does

Originally posted by Countermeasures
Cassini uses plutonium isotope battery that burns out....

Too far away from sun for solarpanels and renewable energy, Cassini would have to be much bigger, like Prometheus to house a fully fledged nuclear reactor, wich would give it a lifespan of decades...

RTGs has lifespan of decades, Pioneers and Voyagers use those and the latter are still operating despite of their over 25 year age.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
OR, to use less fuel, It could tweak it's trajectory by using the gravity of other moons to slow it down

What other moons?
Saturn doesn't have other big moons than Titan.

Remember Galileo had four big moons to use but Saturn has only one big enough moon for significant gravity slingshot effect.


And in planned four year operation time Cassini will make 30-40 Titan flybys.
If it's still operating after that it surely gets mission extension, possibly going through more hazardous orbits and it might be even slowed to orbit of Titan (using Titan's atmosphere to decrease speed) in the end of mission and orbit around it as long as it operates. Cassini propably won't have enough energy to depart Titan's orbit so that would cause it to be in the end of mission.

E_T


Plenty of moons..Iapetus, Dione, Rhea, Tethys..and Titan of course.
They may be small, but Cassini is a lot smaller.
Depends on how long you would like to take with gravity assists.
And yes, I remember that Jupiter has 4 big moons.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
Plenty of moons..Iapetus, Dione, Rhea, Tethys..and Titan of course.

Excluding Titan all those have diameter of 1500 km at most and so small mass (remember mass decreases much faster than diameter) that their gravity is only few percents of Titan's gravity, so using them for changing orbit would require very close passes.
And close flybys would mean extremely small tolerances in orbit to prevent moon from slinghotting Cassini to entirely wrong direction.

Many thanks to all replies...Sorry I couldn't get back sooner(Only have access to computer during Office hours Mon to Fri).
MickeyDee...I Know Huygens is on the surface,But it's totally DEAD on the surface and is now just another piece of space debris.
I just thought it would be intresting to give Titan a lot more "time" as it where.
It's got to be one of the most intresting bodies in the Solar System.