Mapping of the Saturnian Satellites - Results from Cassini

Kurzfassung

The Cassini spacecraft has been touring the Saturnian system since July 2004. Saturn is accompanied by the so-called medium-sized icy satellites Mimas, Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Iapetus, and Phoebe. A major goal of the imaging instrument aboard the spacecraft is to improve the Voyager-1 and Voyager-2 image mosaics of the icy satellites derived from data obtained during the flybys in 1980 and 1981 and to complete the coverage with a resolution better than 1 km/pixel [Porco et al., 2004]. Global mosaics are valuable both for scientific interpretation and for the planning of future flybys later in the ongoing Cassini orbital tour [http://ciclops.org, http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov]. Furthermore, these global mosaics can be extended to standard cartographic products [Roatsch et al.]. Imaging of the satellites is ongoing and will continue until the end of the nominal Cassini mission in July 2008, making it possible to improve the image mosaics during the tour.