Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn

by **hightimber** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:30 pm

For those of you, like myself, who are into the whole NASA thing, Cassini is scheduled to make its flyby of Saturn on July 1st, 2004. After that it will (should) start a 4-year tour of Saturn and its moons. Cassini left Earth 8 long years ago. Due to budgetary concerns, it had to do multiple slingshot maneuvers by other planets (Venus, Earth, Jupiter) to get it to Saturn instead of using a more powerful booster that would've drastically cut its transit time.

Here's a link to the Cassini Homepage.

The Huygens probe will be released (from Cassini) on Christmas Day 2004 and will travel 22 days and plummet into the atmosphere of Titan - Saturn's largest moon. Titan is thought to have oceans of methane gas. Quite a wild place.

Also, I've attached one of the most recent pictures of Saturn that Cassini took on its inbound flight. It's suitable for wallpaper if you're so inclined.

That little white blip to the left and upwards is not a defect in the picture. It's one of Saturn's moons - Enceladus.

Just so you get an idea of scale - 764 Earths could fit inside Saturn. It's large, Marge.

by **Mugzy** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:44 pm

Cool stuff. What I can't wait to see is when someone wins the X Prize. Rumor has it that the first attempts will be made this summer!

http://www.xprize.org/

by **Jeffro** » Fri Mar 26, 2004 4:54 pm

Funny...I have an astronomy teacher who was from colorado teaching in st. louis now!

by **hightimber** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 8:57 am

After 7 years, we're there! We have a satellite orbiting Saturn.

:beer:

Cassini-Huygens at Saturn

Cassini-Huygens Homepage

by **CodeRed68** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:05 am

this is great stuff. i have been following cassini and awaiting this day for 8 years!
It is hard to believe they first sat down to discuss this in 1982 and we are finally there !

What i think is most amazing is that NASA can instruct Cassini, not only to travel 2 billion miles through space to an exact object, but to manuever through a gap in the rings !!!! WTF !!

by **-HaVoC-** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:09 am

I have some great shots also and enjoy the whole cosmos thing too. Watch the Science channel on Tuesday nights.

by **-HaVoC-** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:13 am

Another great Project called Soho

http://www.space.com/soho

by **Mighty Mazz** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:28 am

I read about this in yesterdays paper. Some pretty cool stuff. Like did you know Saturn is less dense then water and would actually float if put in a giant bathtub. The main thing I'm interested in is Titan ever since they first discovered it for some reason I think a bunch of aliens live there. :freak:

Now they say its too cold but I still have faith. Finally a probe in Titan I can rest easy.

by **hightimber** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:41 am

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who's pumped about this mission coming to fruition. Mazz, we still have to wait about 6 months for the probe to "land" on Titan. Those should be some spectacular images.

-HaVoC- as you know, Cassini images should be simply breathtaking compared to those older Voyager shots. We should start seeing some new images today. They are saying the shots of the rings will be less than spectacular, though (just a lot of dust particles and ice and such).

by **Sirus** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 9:45 am

we need pictures, and link to TITAN page ASAP!!!

by **hightimber** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 10:48 am

New Images Released

by **Chacal** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:52 am

This is awesome. Now we're finally exploring.

by **Colonel Ingus** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 11:57 am

Excellent shot there from SOHO HaVoC.

I have one from that g20 storm in UV on my desktop here at work.

And this does rock! I can't wait to see more pictures. This is a good year to be a science geek. Two rovers on Mars, this mission, the X-prize!

YES! ROCKIN!

:badger:

by **-HaVoC-** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 1:03 pm

I frequent space.com quite alot. This image was posted there with the following comments.

Cassini snapped this image of Saturn on May 21, 2004 as it approaches the ringed planet. Researchers hope the spacecraft will be able to determine the exact composition of the planet's multicolored bands.

by **-HaVoC-** » Thu Jul 01, 2004 1:05 pm

This shot was taken by the British mars probe that arrived at the red planet about the same time as our rover did. Talk about perspective... That's the Earth and the Moon

On it's closest pass to us in an eliptical orbit the moon is 221,463 miles give or take 1 mile.

Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn

Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn

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