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Cassini Mission Updates

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Summary of the Cassini - Huygens Mission

This page was last updated on Monday, 12 March 2007

Cassini - Huygens Space Craft

    Cassini entered Saturn's Orbit on 01 July 2004.

    The Huygens Probe descended to Titan's surface on  14 Jan 2005

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, Calif., manages the Cassini mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,

Washington, D.C.".

The Cassini - Huygens combination spacecraft was launched on 15 Oct 1997. The spacecraft consists of an orbiter module and a probe that will implant itself in the surface of Saturn's Moon, Titan.

The Scientific Goals for the Mission include investigating the planet Saturn, Saturn's atmosphere,  and its magnetic field. Several moons orbiting Saturn have been selected for special studies. One such moon is Titan.

While the Cassini module orbits the planet Saturn, the Huygens module will detach itself from the rest of the space craft and descend to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The probe will attach itself to Titan (if the surface is solid) by spearing the moon's surface with an anchor cable. The Huygens probe will study Titan as well as Saturn.

The mission space craft carries 18 instruments. Six of the 18 instruments are aboard the Huygens probe.

+ Cassini's Latest Images
+ Cassini's Latest Press Releases
+ Saturn Arrival Press Kit (PDF 400 kB) Archived
 

News Coverage of Cassini Events

Page last updated on: Monday, 12. March 2007

Cassini Significant Events

for 01/04/06 - 01/10/07

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Wednesday, January 10,

from the Goldstone tracking complexes. The Cassini spacecraft is in an

excellent state of health and is operating normally. Information on the

present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the

"Present Position" web page located at

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm .

Cassini Significant Events

Wednesday, January 10 (DOY 010):

Orbit Trim Maneuver (OTM) # 88 was performed today. This was the approach

maneuver setting up for the Titan 23 encounter on January 13. The reaction

control subsystem burn began at 3:29 AM PST. Telemetry immediately after

the maneuver showed a burn duration of 27.9 seconds, giving a delta-V of 41

mm/s. All subsystems reported nominal performance after the maneuver.

A dry run was held earlier this week of the procedures for upload of AACS

version A.8.7.5 flight software. Today at the Uplink Readiness Review, the

software was approved for uplink with only a minor modification recommended

to the procedures regarding the uplink backup pass. The software is

scheduled to go up to the spacecraft in late January and early February.

UVIS mapped the volatiles N2, CO2, and CH4 in the immediate vicinity of

Enceladus today to test the connection of changes in these chemicals to

plume eruptions. This is an on-going activity with seven similar

observations made in the last quarter of 2006. Titan at 120=BA phase was the

subject of ISS and CIRS photopolarimetry.

The S30 Science Operations Plan update process kick-off meeting was held

today. Following that was a Science Allocation Plan meeting for S27. Now

that S27 has received the final allocation file from DSN representatives,

Cassini Science Planning was able to take a look at the DSN coverage and

determine if there were any extra bits that could be given to the science

teams. A proposed bit allocation plan was distributed prior to and finalized

at the meeting.

Cassini Significant Events

for 08/04/05 - 08/10/05

The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired Wednesday, August 10, from

the Madrid tracking stations. The Cassini spacecraft is in an excellent

state of health and is operating normally. Information on the present

position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on the "Present

Position" web page located at

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm .

Cassini-Huygens Top 10 Science Highlights
July 15, 2005

 

Huygens probe jettison, another view

1. The Cassini Orbiter and the Huygens Probe Reveal Titan's Earth-like Surface and Organic Atmosphere.
2. Closest-ever Observations of Saturn's Rings Reveal Clumps, Kinks, Moons and Waves.
3. Phoebe: A Captured World From the Outer Solar System
4. Saturn's Dynamic Atmosphere
5. Enceladus: A Moon With a Tenuous Atmosphere
6. Saturn's New Radiation Belt
7. Ever-changing Ring-moon Interactions
8. Saturn May Be Slowing Down
9. Iapetus Equatorial Mountain Range
10. Dione: A Moon With Wispy Terrain

 

Image: JPL / NASA

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Cassini News Releases

From JPL / NASA

22 Oct 2004

The sounds of Titan will be played on-line as the probe Huygens descends to the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan on 14 January 2005.

What sounds are we expected to hear on 14 Jan 2005?

The European Space Agency (ESA), a member of the international community sponsoring the Cassini-Huygens project, reports that the world should hear " The sound of alien thunder, the patter of methane rain and the crunch (or splash) of a landing ".

We publish information on the Cassini-Huygens Mission to illustrate a fantastic achievement in communications. Information from the far reaches of Saturn is relayed to Earth through the Deep Space Network. A small energy high definition packet of information reaches Earth after being relayed by a series of space craft located in Earth's orbit and in deep space.  Image showing an artist's view of the Huygens probe descending to the surface of Titan. The sound system is on. 

Image courtesy of the European Space Agency ( ESA ).  Special release to the media on 22 Oct 2004.

Ham radio operators that use one or more of the digital communications modes should have a particularly high interest in  in the communications system developed by NASA.

Return to Home Page

Go to Cassini-Huygens page

Web Site search on the word "communication" .  No quotation marks

ESA

On Friday, June 11th, 2004, Cassini made its first encounter with a member

of the Saturn system. This week's Phoebe encounter, the only flyby of an

outer Saturnian satellite in the mission, and the first close flyby

 ever of an irregular Saturnian satellite, was spectacularly

 successful! Cassini came within approximately 2,068 kilometers

 of the dark moon. It has been 23 years since the Voyager 2

 flyby of Phoebe in 1981 at 2.2 million kilometers, more

than 1,000 times farther away.

Image of Saturn and 4 satellites taken in 1981 by Voyager 2.

Courtesy of JPL/NASA

Since all of the optical remote sensing instruments were pointing towards

Phoebe during the flyby, it was not until several hours later that the

spacecraft turned to relay the data back to Earth. The signal was received

on Saturday, June 12th, through the Deep Space Network antennas in Madrid,

Spain and Goldstone, California.

Cassini 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, Calif., manages the Cassini

mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.

Cassini Outreach

Cassini Mission to Saturn and Titan

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology

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Information on the present position and speed of the Cassini spacecraft may be found on NASA's

"Present Position" web page located at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/present-position.cfm  ".

Go to Cassini Mission Page

This page was last edited on 12 March, 2007