Operational thermal control of Cassini Titan flybys

The Cassini spacecraft will fly by Saturn's largest moon, Titan, forty-five times during its science tour. Twenty-five of the flybys will have a relatively low closest approach target altitude in Titan's atmosphere and are of thermal concern. The Thermal Devices Team on the Cassini Project in Mission Operations at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has designed an operational thermal control strategy for these flybys. The challenge was to provide flyby operational thermal control that enabled science and remained within design limitations and Project constraints.