Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan

May 24, 2005 4:39 PM

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.
posted by Lanark (11 comments total)

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!
posted by interrobang at 5:23 PM on May 24, 2005

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'. . .
posted by mk1gti at 5:24 PM on May 24, 2005

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.
posted by kokogiak at 5:50 PM on May 24, 2005

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.
posted by lukemeister at 8:13 PM on May 24, 2005

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

posted by intermod at 8:32 PM on May 24, 2005

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.
posted by mk1gti at 8:49 PM on May 24, 2005

The perfect picture of Saturn and the best photo of the rings.
posted by gren at 11:11 PM on May 24, 2005

HEY! Hmmph. ;)
posted by yoga at 5:52 AM on May 25, 2005

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?
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:55 AM on May 25, 2005

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.
posted by bumpkin at 10:31 AM on May 25, 2005

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.
posted by kokogiak at 3:23 PM on May 25, 2005