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Current Missions - Cassini
Spacecraft
Launch: October 15, 1997
Mass: 5,712 kilograms (12,593 pounds), consisting of 2,125-kilogram (4,685-pound)
orbiter, 320-kilogram (705-pound) Huygens probe, launch vehicle adapter and 3,132
kilograms (6,905 pounds) of propellants
Science instruments: Orbiter optical camera system, imaging radar, radio science,
ion and neutral mass spectrometer, visible and infrared mapping spectrometer, composite
infrared spectrometer, cosmic dust analyzer, radio and plasma wave spectrometer, plasma
spectrometer, ultraviolet imaging spectrograph, magnetospheric imaging instrument, dual
technique magnetometer; Huygens probe descent imager and spectral radiometer,
atmospheric structure instrument, gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, aerosol
collector pyrolyzer, surface science package, doppler wind experiment
Overview
The Cassini mission to Saturn is the most ambitious effort in planetary space
exploration ever mounted. A joint endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and
the Italian Space Agency (known as ASI for its acronym in Italian), Cassini is sending a
sophisticated robotic spacecraft to orbit the ringed planet and study the Saturnian system
in detail over a four-year period.
Onboard Cassini is a scientific probe called Huygens that will be released from the main
spacecraft to parachute through the atmosphere to the surface of Saturn's largest and most
interesting moon, Titan, which is shrouded by an opaque atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere
includes organic compounds leading scientists to believe that the moon may be like a frozen
vault of conditions similar to those on Earth before life began. The Cassini orbiter
will also use imaging radar to map Titan's surface.
Launched October 15, 1997, on a Titan 4 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, Cassini
has flown past other planets on its way to Saturn -- once each by Earth and Jupiter, twice
by Venus -- to borrow gravitational energy to speed it on its way. Cassini will enter
Saturn orbit July 1, 2004, and the Huygens probe will descend to the surface of Titan on
January 14, 2005.
More Information:
Cassini-Huygens Home
Cassini Fact Sheet (PDF)
Saturn Exploration
More on Saturn
Jupiter Millennium Flyby (Dec. 30, 2000) (Galileo and Cassini)
Where is Cassini today?
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