Cassini Glitches

byronbussey writes: "After the Mars Lander fiasco and the metric conversion problems the gremlins are not going away for NASA. The Cassini probe which has been taking some awesome pictures of Jupiter, has run into some steering problems."

units

[maddogsparky]

Well, at least it seems to be a problem other than using the wrong units (although that could be fixed with a software patch). If it affects the trajectory, unlike what is claimed in the article, Cassini could get some REAL closeup photos!

Re:Am I the only one that thinks this would be coo

[glebite]

I envision that it would be the remote probe version of two teenagers taking pictures of each other with their polaroid cameras...

But yeah, that would be real cool. You are not the only one thinking this. I wonder if somebody could post a link to an overlay of where Cassini (the space probe not the body) is now with where Galileo (the space probe not the body) is now?

That would be a cool synching up.

Kudos for raising the question.

Cassini glitch may be fixed

[astronow]

The latest news [spaceflightnow.com] is this problem with Cassini's pointing system appears to be resolved and hopefully we will start seeing more spectacular pictures like this [spaceflightnow.com] very soon.

It's unlikely to affect the trajectory

[typical geek]

It's an orientation issue, not a orbital change issue.

Cassini is supposed to changed it's orientation using internal flywheels, via conservation of rotational momentum, ie. the internal flywheel spins up counterclockwise, and Cassini turns clockwise, albeit much slower.

This isn't working, so they had to use the hydrazine thrusters. As long as the thrusters cooperate, there won't be a change in orbit, the push on one side will be balanced by an off center push on the other.

A shame though, because the flywheel manuevering only takes energy, which Cassini should have in scads. The thrusters take propellant, which Cassini has a finite supply. This may cause hte mission to have a reduce lifespan.

Am I the only one that thinks this would be cool?

[Smitty825]

I personally think that it would be very cool if somehow we could get Cassini to take a photograph of Galieo. Besides the "coolness" factor, if the picture was clear enough, we could see what happens to earths metals when placed in extreme radiation for several years.

I realize that it would be very difficult to do, though, because Galieo is a very small spaceship compared to Jupiter, it would be very hard to photograph (especially because Cassini is about 6 million miles away), but we would know where Galieo is!