Expert: Tom Whiting - 7/13/2004

Question
Hello Tom

 I'm sure there's an easy answer to this, but why are most of the new images from Cassini in B&W?   I would assume it's a data rate transfer thing, but with technology we have now, why can't we get color pics?  

While we're at it, I work in the automotive service (BMW) industry, I am located in Monrovia, CA, very close to JPL and 2 of my customers are on the Cassini team. One is in senior project management.   I pepper them with questions all the time, and this gentleman told me that (a whiles back) that Titan is almost surely covered by a liquid ocean (not water of course, I believe it was methane).  He said this is bec the Arecibo dish has beamed signals off Titan and many parts of the surface are almost uniformly smooth/flat.   Now, however it is early, I've read that there seems to be no liquids.  Any thoughts on this?

Thanks for your time
Tim

Answer
Yes Tim, thank you for the question...
Well, Saturn is just emerging from conjunction on
the back side of the sun, relative to the Earth's location,  so data transfer is at a minimum now, and for the past two weeks, so we just need a little patience until another couple of weeks when Saturn will begin rising in our eastern sky more than 15 degrees from the sun. In fact, by early
August Saturn will lead the sun by rising 2 hours (30 degrees) ahead of it, and by then, I'm sure that data transfer will resume its normal flow.

Also, since Cassini was designed with no scan platform,
(big mistake there) when it's busy collecting data, there
can be no transmissions to Earth, so what it's probably
been doing right now is collecting data for re-transmission at a later date as it swings out way beyond Saturn on its first long trip around the planet.  So just a little
patience is involved here.

Well, either Titan is covered by a liquid methane ocean,
or perhaps there is some solid compounds perhaps floating
or even stationary in that ocean.  Time will tell...in
either case, I believe the Huygens probe is designed to
make a soft landing either in a liquid or solid material.
So we will just have to wait until Jan. 14th to find out.
(As you know, that's the reason for the probe in the
first place - to learn about the surface of Titan).
Personally, I have no pre-conceived notions about the
surface of Titan; I'll just wait and see what the results
are, like everyone else.  If everything goes as planned,
the wait won't be too much longer.  I believe the Huygens
release date is Christmas Eve, with landing scheduled for
Jan. 14th.
Hope all this helps,
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Pres...ECMOG
Erie, PA