The Cassini spacecraft, to be launched in 1997, is expected to orbit Saturn in January 2005. Scientists and flight planners discussed which trajectory the spacecraft should take to maximize the scientific information that could be obtained by the spacecraft. This animation shows what would be seen if a camera were placed on the spacecraft pointed at Saturn according to one such planned trajectory.

Also displayed is the angle above the plane of Saturn's rings, and the distance from the point directly below the spacecraft on Saturn. The distance is measured in units of Saturn radii (Rs), each of which is about 60,000km or 37,000 miles.

The squares are centered about the points on a particular ring at greatest angular separation as viewed from the spacecraft. The Ansae phase angles display the Sun-Ansa-Spacecraft angle; this was useful to the Cassini scientists interested in imaging Saturn's rings.

This animation could be part of an exercise where students imitate scientsts: they could group themselves into scientific teams, interested in different goals, and compare several proposed spacecraft trajectories for how well they would satisfy the goals. Radio-occultation scientists, for example, are interested in trajectories where a narrow radio beam from the Cassini spacecraft pointed at the Earth would travel through the rings. Imaging scientists are interested in the spacecraft traveling close to the rings, at a high-angle. Moon scientists want to maximize the number of times the spacecraft comes close to the moon in which they're interested.

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Last modified: Aug. 22, 2008 by Allen Dutra.