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Cassini Probe Heads Towards Saturn 'Grand Finale'

MULTIZ321

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Cassini Probe Heads Towards Saturn 'Grand Finale'
By Jonathan Amos/ Science & Environment/ BBC News/ bbc.com


"Cassini has used a gravitational slingshot around Saturn's moon Titan to put it on a path towards destruction.

Saturday's flyby swept the probe into an orbit that takes it in between the planet's rings and its atmosphere.

This gap-run gives the satellite the chance finally to work out the length of a day on Saturn, and to determine the age of its stunning rings.

But the manoeuvre means also that it cannot escape a fiery plunge into Saturn's clouds in September.

The US space agency (Nasa) is calling an end to 12 years of exploration and discovery at Saturn because the probe's propellant tanks are all but empty.

Controllers cannot risk an unresponsive satellite one day crashing into - and contaminating - the gas giant's potentially life-supporting moons, and so they have opted for a strategy that guarantees safe disposal.

"If Cassini runs out of fuel it would be uncontrolled and the possibility that it could crash-land on the moons of Titan and/or Enceladus are unacceptably high," said Dr Earl Maize, Nasa's Cassini programme manager.

"We could put it into a very long orbit far from Saturn but the science return from that would be nowhere near as good as what we're about to do," he told BBC News...."

_95739706_pia18278.jpg

NASA/JPL
Image caption The remainder of the mission will see Cassini repeatedly dive between the atmosphere and the rings



Richard
 

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Mind-Blowing Images Of Space From the Cassini Orbiter
From ABC News/ Technology/Photos/ abcnews.go.com

Amazing pictures. Be sure to see the picture taken while Cassini was in Saturn's shadow. The cameras were turned toward Saturn and the sun so that the planet and rings are backlit. (The sun is behind the planet, which is shielding the cameras from direct sunlight.)


Richard
 

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Cassini Finds 'Big Empty' Near Saturn
By Deborah Byrd/ Space/ EarthSky/ earthsky.org

"There’s much less dust between Saturn and its inner rings than expected, said NASA engineers, after last week’s historic dive through this gap by the Cassini spacecraft. Astronomers have been contemplating this maneuver by a spacecraft for decades, since the two Voyager spacecraft passed Saturn in the early 1980s. The fear was that a spacecraft might encounter debris that would suddenly end its mission! But Cassini – which is running out of fuel after orbiting Saturn since 2004 – not only passed through the gap successfully but also found it surprising debris-free. Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California said:

The region between the rings and Saturn is ‘the big empty,’ apparently. Cassini will stay the course, while the scientists work on the mystery of why the dust level is much lower than expected...."

Richard
 

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Richard, do you agree that the disposal of the craft is warranted, given the obvious data loss tradeoffs, expense, commitment, resources, etc. vs. the theoretical contaminations? What is your opinion on this?
 

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Richard, do you agree that the disposal of the craft is warranted, given the obvious data loss tradeoffs, expense, commitment, resources, etc. vs. the theoretical contaminations? What is your opinion on this?
Yep, I feel disposal of Cassini is warranted, especially since it is running out of fuel. For more info, see
NASA Will Destroy a $3.26 Billion Saturn Probe This Summer to Protect an Alien Water World
By Dave Mosher/ Science/ Business Insider/ businessinsider.com


Richard
 

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