Addition of a low altitude Tethys flyby to the nominal Cassini tour

Abstract

Of the eight Saturnian icy satellites. all but Mimas and Tethys had low altitude targeted flybys during the 4-year primary Cassini spacecraft tour. In November 2004, the existence of a potential low-altitude Tethys flyby was discovered; this low-altitude flyby, added to the nominal tour in March 2005, corresponded to a 1500 km non-targeted periapsis altitude on September 24, 2005 with an associated (delta)v cost of approximately 8 mis. This memo details the methods used to determine the Rev-15 non-targeted Tethys flyby altitude, driven by navigational requirements and operational constraints, in addition to several trajectory modifications implemented to reduce total (delta)v costs, and in some cases. render simultaneous increases in scientific return

    Similar works