[meteorite-list] Cassini-Huygens Mission Status Report - May 28, 2004

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri May 28 12:47:24 2004
Message-ID: <200405281647.JAA16804_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Carolina Martinez (818) 354-9382
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Donald Savage (202) 358-1727

NASA Headquarters, Washington

News Release: 2004-134 May 28, 2004

Cassini-Huygens Mission Status Report

The Cassini spacecraft successfully performed a critical six-minute
trajectory correction maneuver May 27 to put it on course with its
first encounter, Saturn's outermost moon Phoebe, set for June 11. The
spacecraft is operating normally and is in excellent health.

"The maneuver is very critical for getting us into Saturn orbit
because it is the first checkout of the bipropellant pressurization
system after nearly five years of dormancy," said Todd Barber,
propulsion engineer for Cassini at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif. "It sets the stage for Saturn orbit insertion on
June 30."

During the course of its trip, Cassini has traveled 3.4 billion
kilometers (2.1 billion miles). "We couldn't have asked for a smoother
ride," said Robert T. Mitchell, program manager for the
Cassini-Huygens mission at JPL. "All the instruments are performing
well, and for almost seven years we have traveled without any major
hitches. The excitement is building as we are getting ready to put
Cassini in orbit around the ringed planet." The orbiter has relied on
three radioisotope thermoelectric generators to power all the
electrical components, including the 12 science instruments. The
European-built Huygens probe on board Cassini carries six instruments.

"If the road to Saturn were a highway, the Cassini orbiter would have
passed the sign along the road that says 'Saturnian County line,'"
said Jeremy Jones, chief navigator for the Cassini-Huygens mission at
JPL. "The next exits are Phoebe, 9 million kilometers (5.4 million
miles) ahead, Saturn 19 million kilometers (12 million miles) ahead."

Phoebe is an oddly shaped moon with a dark surface. It orbits in the
opposite direction from the motion of most other bodies in the solar
system. The backwards-revolution leads scientists to believe that it
is an object captured from distant Kuiper Belt, making it an
interesting target. "The Phoebe flyby may offer the first glimpse of
what the frigid bodies at the edge of the solar system look like,"
said Dr. Bonnie Buratti, scientist on the Cassini-Huygens mission at
JPL. "These bodies, which include Pluto and its satellite Charon, are
believed to be remnant objects left over from the formation of the
planets 4.5 billion years ago."

After the Phoebe flyby, Cassini will be on course for Saturn. On
arrival date June 30 (July 1 Universal Time), Cassini will become the
first orbiter around Saturn. "The two Voyager and Pioneer spacecraft
flew by the planet and saw it from a distance two or three days at a
time. With Cassini, we will be in the city limits for four years,"
said Dr. Dennis Matson, project scientist for Cassini at JPL. "The
difference is like driving by the Grand Canyon versus stopping,
getting off and enjoying the sights for a while."

On arrival, Cassini will begin a 96-minute burn designed to put the
spacecraft into Saturn's orbit. As part of getting the spacecraft into
orbit, Cassini will twice cross between known gaps in the rings. As a
precautionary measure, the spacecraft will use its antenna as a shield
to protect it from tiny particle hits.

A prime target for Cassini and the piggyback Huygens probe built by
the European Space Agency is the smoggy moon Titan. "In the 350 years
since the discovery of Titan we have come to see it as a world with
surprising similarities to our own, yet located almost 1.5 billion
kilometers (900 million miles) from the Sun," said Dr. Jonathan
Lunine, Huygens interdisciplinary scientist and professor of planetary
science and physics at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "With a
thick, nitrogen-rich atmosphere and possible hydrocarbon seas, Titan
may harbor organic compounds important in the chain of chemistry that
led to life on Earth."

Six months after reaching Saturn, Cassini will release the wok-shaped
Huygens probe towards Titan on Dec. 24, 2004 (Dec. 25 Universal Time).
The event will be by far the most distant descent of a robotic probe
on another object in the solar system. On Jan. 14, 2005 (Jan. 15
Universal Time), Huygens will enter Titan's atmosphere, deploy its
parachute, and begin its scientific observations of Titan.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
European Space Agency, and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's
office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL designed, developed and
assembled the Cassini orbiter.

For the latest images and more information about the Cassini-Huygens
mission, visit http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .
 

- end -
Received on Fri 28 May 2004 12:46:58 PM PDT