Comments on: Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan

Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan

Lanark — Tue, 24 May 2005 16:39:45 -0800

Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn A collaboration between 17 nations (3 space agencies). The atmosphere shows wavelike cloud structures, Saturn's rings display Waves and Small Particles. First image of a small moon orbiting within the Keeler gap.
Previous Missions, 2005 tour dates.

By: interrobang

interrobang — Tue, 24 May 2005 17:23:17 -0800

Thanks for all this. I missed the little movies from the "previous missions" link the first time, and I'm grateful for the tour dates. Also, sounds from Titan!

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Tue, 24 May 2005 17:24:00 -0800

Man, I remember when this was launched by the shuttle back in. . . Oh, I don't know, the Pliestocene? Cassini was the last of the 'grand missions' consisting of Galileo, Magellan and, of course, Cassini, all built off the same 'chassis'. Amazing work from some truly amazing spacecraft. We will not see their kind again. Now it's just 'space exploration by Yugo'. . .

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Tue, 24 May 2005 17:50:35 -0800

I've been following this closely for a long time now, and am a real fan of the imagery - I've decided to collect some of the images from NASA (free to public redistribution) into a Photoset on Flickr - there are some very nice ones in there (imho). I'm looking forward to the next pass over Enceladus July 14th - Cassini will pass within just 100 miles of its surface.

By: lukemeister

lukemeister — Tue, 24 May 2005 20:13:57 -0800

Cassini was launched on a Titan IV/Centaur on October 15, 1997. It was a beautiful night launch. I think the pendulum will eventually swing back from Mars to the outer solar system, since Titan and Europa are both way cool.

By: intermod

intermod — Tue, 24 May 2005 20:32:02 -0800

The really hairy part of the mission is behind us, but it's still super cool to watch a burst of discoveries come out every few weeks as they continue the orbits and flybys. The links I've been using:

NASA's site
JPL's site (better)
SpaceFlightNow's coverage
current position
a great technical discussion of the Cassini orbits

By: mk1gti

mk1gti — Tue, 24 May 2005 20:49:36 -0800

lukemeister I stand corrected re the launch of Cassini. Galileo was launched by shuttle, although the time in storage affected the lube on the antenna wires which resulted in the antenna only deploying partially.

By: gren

gren — Tue, 24 May 2005 23:11:20 -0800

The perfect picture of Saturn and the best photo of the rings.

By: yoga

yoga — Wed, 25 May 2005 05:52:11 -0800

HEY! Hmmph. ;)

By: [insert clever name here]

[insert clever name here] — Wed, 25 May 2005 06:55:23 -0800

Well Yoga, it wasn't important until Huygens actually landed. Up until that point it was just a hunk of metal flying through space at speeds faster than you or I can really imagine. Geez. But Seriously, does anyone know if we're still getting information from Huygens? I was under the impression when it landed we'd be getting data every month or so as Cassini flew buy, but now I can't seem to find any information about updates from Huygen since its touch down. Was I mistaken, or am I not reading the sites close enough to see the updates?

By: bumpkin

bumpkin — Wed, 25 May 2005 10:31:09 -0800

Thanks for posting this. One of the PI's on the Cassini mission swung by here a couple of months ago to give a talk on this. While I suppose there was some mention of science, all I remember was the space porn. Saturn is hot hot hot. Although I am still a bigger fan of the Earth (and I find Mars incredibly boring), the images of such an alien and far off world give me a shiver, every time.

By: kokogiak

kokogiak — Wed, 25 May 2005 15:23:13 -0800

ICNH - I believe that Huygens was a one-hit wonder, and that its data was relayed for about 6 hours, and that's all. No further updates.