After nearly twenty years in flight, Cassini’s mission at Saturn will conclude as it purposely dives into Saturn’s atmosphere on September 15, 2017. Primarily to avoid moons potentially harboring conditions for life and with propellant very low, the intentional plunge into the atmosphere was set in motion years ago. We take this opportunity to give an overview of the optical navigation and its roles throughout the mission. The paper describes the navigation process and the evolution of optical navigation over the past thirteen years. The last equatorial phase of the Cassini mission was particularly challenging for the OD team as the Saturn system was not being estimated anymore, and it had been a few years since the last icy moon flybys. Science pictures of Enceladus one month prior to the Enceladus encounters confirmed the moon’s position to be in good agreement with the Saturn system dynamical modeling used. This reduced Enceladus’s absolute uncertainty by a factor of three, less than 1 km, and gave confidence the navigation team could achieve acceptable flybys and meet science objectives.
Optical Navigation During Cassini's Solstice Mission
2017-08-20
Preprint
Keine Angabe
Englisch
Optical navigation during Cassini's Solstice mission
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