Cassini probe at Saturn... (warning -- large images!)

looks like announcement about to be made...

bbc news24 is going to be watched to within an inch of its life when i get home

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_01_H.jpg

Higher up than the midrange shot:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_02_H.jpg

More photos and reports soon.

A 360 view from about 8 kilometers up.

A smaller section of same:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/Picture2.jpg

And the first color ground image.

I guess you can say you weren't disappointed!

Another view of that 'coastline' area:

ihttp://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/press_release_050120/HRICoastLineMoasic_H.jpg

"In total, the core of our team has invested something like 80 man years on this experiment, 18 of which are mine," Atkinson wrote. "I think right now the key lesson is this — if you're looking for a job with instant and guaranteed success, this isn't it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/sci_nat_enl_1108646012/img/1.jpg

The 440km-wide circular feature resembles a large crater or part of a ringed basin, either of which could have been formed when a comet or asteroid tens of km in size slammed into Titan. This is the first impact feature identified in radar images of Titan. (Image: Nasa/JPL)

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/videos/video-details.cfm?videoID=99

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0505/saturnplane_cassini.jpg

For calstars, copied from an actually useful yahoo answers page:

By radio waves. The transmission is programmed into the computers on Cassini at a particular time and the receiving stations of the Deeps Space network are ready to receive the data stream 46 hours later.

"...The Cassini spacecraft is supported by two major components of the JPL's Interplanetary Network Directorate (IND).

Telecommunications and data acquisition support is provided by the NASA Deep Space Network, the world's largest, most sensitive spacecraft communications network. The DSN consists of three deep space communications complexes located approximately 120 degrees of longitude apart around the world: at Goldstone, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This placement permits continuous communication with deep space spacecraft. The DSN supports Earth orbiter spacecraft communications, as well as, radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploraton of the solar system and the universe.

The DSN provides the vital two-way communications link that guides and controls the Cassini spacecraft. The DSN 34-meter-diameter (112-foot) and 70-meter-diameter antennas are precision pointed, high-gain, parabolic reflector antennas with high power transmitters and ultra low noise (3 Kelvin operating temperature) amplifiers. Each deep space communication complex provides capabilities required to perform telemetry data processing including signal reception and amplification, signal demodulation and decoding, and data packet extraction. A capability to control the spacecraft via commands received from the Cassini project and transmitted from the DSN using 20 kilowatt transmitters is provided. Precision navigation is provided by measurements of signal phase and generation of range data which make use of the ultrastable frequency and timing capabilities of the DSN. All DSN complexes are linked to JPL via a world-wide communications network.

Cassini is also supported by IND's Advanced Multimission Operations System. Known as AMMOS, this system provides a common set of mission operations services and tools to the Cassini mission, as well as to other JPL spaceflight projects. They include capabilities which enable Cassini engineers to do mission planning and analysis, develop pre-planned sets of commands to the spacecraft, perform trajectory calculations for navigating the spacecraft, and process telemetry data (i.e., downlink data from the spacecraft). The AMMOS also provides capabilities for the Cassini Flight team to display and analyze key measurements, such as readings of temperature, pressure, and power, from the spacecraft. Other mission operations services include simulation of telemetry and command data, data management and retrieval of all data types used by the Cassini project, and data archiving.

Brilliant. I will have to read that several times before it makes sense. I didn't know radio waves could carry imagery.

Cheers James!

radio can carry anything digital

I want to visit the Canberra DSN post now, if I ever get to travel there again

Nice in-house profile of members of the team and the build-up to the end.

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3122/cassinis-family-takes-the-plunge/

Can anyone explain...

The telemetry downlink speed wasn't terrible. 14.2 baud, during Saturn orbit phase, if I'm reading this correctly. A state of the art 1991 phone modem.

Oops, 14400 kbit/s.

By comparison, New Horizons, sending back the data from its Pluto flyby, and using both antennas, was limited to 2000 bits per second. Your 1995 AOL dial-up was 28 times faster. Space porn requires patience.

Emptying out the Cassini conference room. (thread)

This is the ⁦@CassiniSaturn⁩ - VIMS Operations Center (read: conference room). For the rest of the month, my job is to dismantle it - making sure the stuff that needs to be destroyed gets destroyed, sorting out the rest. This is going to be fun! pic.twitter.com/fiPQxfRr2e

— Emily J (@EmExAstris) September 5, 2019

Somebody just pointed me to this page, maybe it’s already mentioned upthread or elsewhere:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html