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Cassini/Huygens: Planned for launch in October 1997, Cassini would reach Saturn in 2004 to study the planet and its moons. During the first orbit, the Huygens probe would be released to begin its 22-day voyage and descent to Titan, Saturn's largest moon. |
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JPL: Richard J. "Dick" Spehalski of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is the project manager for the Cassini Mission to Saturn. Since 1959 he has held various engineering and management positions on the Mariner missions to Venus and Mars and the Voyager project. He was project manager of the Galileo mission to Jupiter. |
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Titan IV: The Titan IV-Centaur launch vehicle will boost the heavy Cassini payload from Cape Canaveral. |
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Jupiter: Too heavy for a direct Earth-to-Saturn trajectory, Cassini's course will incorporate gravity assists from Venus, Earth, and Jupiter. As it swings around Jupiter in December, 2000, Cassini will examine the planet's magnetotail. |
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Saturn: The probe is planned to reach the Saturnian system in June, 2004. Saturn is shown here with its moons Tethys and Dione (left to right) appearing as white dots beneath the planet. The dark spot on Saturn is Tethys' shadow. |
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Titan: A major target and focus of the mission will be Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Little is known about this moon, whose atmosphere is closer to Earth's than any other planet or moon in our solar system. |
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Titan's Atmosphere: In 1980, Voyager 1 captured this image of Titan's upper atmosphere, seen as a blue haze . |
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Cassini/Huygens: After entering the Saturnian system, the Huygens probe will separate from the Saturn orbiter during the initial orbit of the planet. The probe will coast for 22 days before its eventual descent to Titan, in late November, 2004. |
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Huygens: The probe starts the parachute-deployment sequence after entry into Titan's atmosphere. The first part of the sequence is the pilot parachute deployment, which pulls off the back cover from Huygens. |
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Huygens: After the 26 foot (8 meter) diameter main parachute unfurls, the front heat shield is released, allowing it to fall away from the descent module. |
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Huygens: The main parachute is jettisoned to avoid a too long descent. A smaller stabilizing parachute deploys; then the descent module opens its intake ports and begins to take readings during descent. |
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Huygens: After reaching the surface, the probe will have about three minutes of battery life for data retrieval and transmission back to the Saturn Orbiter. Data from Voyager indicates that the surface may be a frozen methane sea, with towering methane ice cliffs and icebergs. |
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Ring Viewing: Cassini's arrival at Saturn is timed for optimum viewing of the rings, during a period when they will be well-illuminated by sunlight. |
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Cassini: Cassini will make a 4-year tour of Saturn and each moon after the Huygens-Titan encounter. This composite shows Saturn with eight of its 27 known moons (none of which are shown in proper scale.) Titan (upper right) is Saturn's largest moon. |
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Saturn: This color-enhanced image of Saturn from Voyager brings out the planet's atmospheric features. The horizontal bands in Saturn's atmosphere travel at 900 mph. Cassini will have the chance to study the planet's atmosphere in greater detail than the Voyager probes. |
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Saturn: Voyager 1 revealed that Saturn's three main rings are actually composed of thousands of separate rings. Cassini will closely examine the properties of the rings from various angles during the satellite tour. |
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Enceladus: A high-resolution image of Saturn's moon Enceladus from Voyager 2. This Saturnian moon is made entirely of water ice with few indications of impact craters. Cassini will determine if Enceladus has some internal heat source that melts the ice erasing impact craters. |
