posted 09-15-2016 11:07 PM               

This thread is intended for comments and questions regarding the Cassini mission to Saturn and its "Grand Finale."

After almost 20 years in space, the Cassini probe's mission will end on September 15, 2017 at 8:07 a.m. EDT (0007 GMT Sept. 16).

In late 2016, the Cassini spacecraft will begin a new type of mission at Saturn. During its final months, the spacecraft's orbit will carry it high above the planet's north pole and then send it plunging between the planet and the innermost edge of its rings.

Beginning on Nov. 30, 2016, Cassini will repeatedly climb high above Saturn's north pole, then plunge to a point just outside the narrow F ring (the edge of the main rings), completing 22 such orbits. Then, on April 22, 2017, Cassini will leap over the rings to begin its final series of dives between the planet and the inner edge of the rings. This is the Cassini "Grand Finale."

After 22 of these orbits, each taking six days to complete, the spacecraft, will plunge into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant planet, where it will burn up like a meteor, ending the mission to the Saturn system.

posted 04-04-2017 03:18 PM               

Eyes on Cassini

The Cassini mission launched in 1997 and spent seven years traveling to Saturn, arriving in 2004. Cassini is the first spacecraft to orbit Saturn, and has provided a treasure trove of data and images of the entire Saturnian system.

Now you can ride onboard the spacecraft throughout the entire mission (20 years) using "Eyes on Cassini" on your Mac or PC.

In this interactive visualization, you can ride along with the Cassini spacecraft at any time during the entire mission, a period of 20 years! For example, watch the arrival at Saturn on July 1st, 2004, or see Cassini launch the Huygens probe and follow it to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. You can see where Cassini was when it captured iconic images, and you can compare the real images to the visualization. You can even ride along with Cassini during its final 20 orbits, in which it zips between Saturn and its rings — a place no spacecraft has explored before. And you can watch these things happen at actual speed, or much, much faster.

All of this and more is waiting to be explored.

posted 04-26-2017 04:39 AM               

Cassini has made its first dive between the rings and Saturn. It is not in contact with Earth at this time and is expected to regain contact via NASA’s Deep Space Network no earlier than around midnight PDT on April 26, 2017 (3 a.m. EDT on April 27, 2017).

posted 04-27-2017 02:54 AM               

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is back in contact with Earth after its successful first-ever dive through the narrow gap between the planet Saturn and its rings on April 26, 2017.

The spacecraft is in the process of beaming back science and engineering data collected during its passage, via NASA's Deep Space Network Goldstone Complex in California's Mojave Desert. The DSN acquired Cassini's signal at 11:56 p.m. PDT on April 26, 2017 (2:56 a.m. EDT on April 27) and data began flowing at 12:01 a.m. PDT (3:01 a.m. EDT) on April 27.

Above: These unprocessed images show features in Saturn's atmosphere from closer than ever before. The view was captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft during its first Grand Finale dive past the planet, April 26, 2017. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

posted 05-04-2017 04:09 PM            

"The images from the first pass were great, but we were conservative with the camera settings. We plan to make updates to our observations for a similar opportunity on June 28 that we think will result in even better views," said Andrew Ingersoll, a member of the Cassini imaging team based at Caltech in Pasadena, California.

posted 05-04-2017 06:27 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
...is Cassini capable, given the close range and the high speed, of focusing on the cloud-tops?

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I'll tell you a little bit about that 76,000 miles per hour — it smears the dickens out of the images. So we really can't take images right up that close, we have to be a little farther away.

posted 09-05-2017 07:01 PM               

In case you have not heard, the end of Cassini's historic mission is Sept. 15th next week with a dramatic plunge into Saturn's atmosphere. It is both a sad and joyous occasion and we are thrilled to have be invited to attend with full media credentials. What does that mean for you?

• Exclusive live coverage on our social media on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook – with some live streams

• We will be filming interviews, filming Mission Control and more for the Behind-the-scenes materials for the DVD/Blu-Ray releases

• We will be making useful contacts with JPL, NASA and other space folk to help with the premiere of the film next May

So be sure to follow along – we leave September 12th and return the 16th.

posted 09-08-2017 10:37 AM               

On September 15, 2017, the Cassini Spacecraft will make a final dive into the atmosphere of Saturn where it will become part of the planet forever. Onward!!!

posted 09-11-2017 04:40 PM            

That picture appeared earlier in Willy Ley's 1949 book "The Conquest of Space" and the 1955 film of the same name.

I could not have imagined, 56 years after seeing that remarkable picture, that I would get a chance to see the real thing, courtesy of Cassini. A JPL movie anticipating Cassini's destruction at the end of this week shows the spacecraft burning up in Saturn's upper atmosphere against a backdrop which was surely inspired by the Bonestell painting.

Meanwhile, images from Cassini's "Grand Finale" have shown the rings from below, almost as Bonestell imagined the scene, long before the space-age made a voyage like Cassini's possible.

posted 09-13-2017 08:17 AM               

NOVA: Death Dive to Saturn
Airing September 13, 2017 on PBS

Almost everything we know today about the beautiful giant ringed planet comes from Cassini, the NASA mission that launched in 1997 and arrived at Saturn in 2004. Since then, the spacecraft has been beaming home miraculous images and scientific data, revealing countless wonders about the planet, its rings, and 62 moons — including some that could harbor life.

As the mission approaches its final days in 2017, it attempts one last set of daring maneuvers — diving between the innermost ring and the top of Saturn's atmosphere. Aiming to skim less than 2,000 miles above the cloud tops, no spacecraft has ever gone so close to Saturn, and hopes are high for incredible observations that could solve major mysteries about the planet's core. But such a daring maneuver comes with many risks.

Join NASA engineers for the tense and triumphant moments as they find out if their gambit has paid off, and discover the wonders that Cassini has revealed over the years.

posted 09-14-2017 02:01 PM               

Cassini's mark: Plunging into Saturn, what the NASA probe leaves behind on Earth

The first spacecraft to orbit Saturn will never be available for a museum to preserve and display.

Now in the final hours of a collision course with the ringed planet, NASA's Cassini spacecraft will plunge into Saturn's atmosphere on Friday (Sept. 15), where it will break apart, melt and disintegrate. After almost 20 years in space, 13 of which at Saturn, Cassini will not even leave a mark in the planet's clouds — it will simply go silent and fade away.

The same might be true for Cassini's place in pop culture.

posted 09-15-2017 07:19 AM               

"Maybe a trickle of telemetry left, but just heard the signal from the spacecraft is gone and within the next 45 seconds so will be the spacecraft... I'm going to call this the end of mission." — Earl Maize, Cassini program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

A natural color view of the last image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft of Saturn's night side, as lit by reflected light from the rings, and showing the location where the probe would enter the planet's atmosphere hours later.

posted 09-15-2017 08:04 AM               

There is still one piece of Cassini still in orbit around Saturn: the neutral mass spectrometer cover was ejected just after orbit insertion.

posted 09-15-2017 12:55 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by denali414:
You forget how quickly technology changes...

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Distance wasn't really an issue (Pluto was only about 300 million miles further away in 2015 than Neptune was in 1989). As I recall, more funding and more availability of DSN resources made the Voyager 2 data return faster.

posted 09-15-2017 03:18 PM               

Aboard the spacecraft, the company's R-4D 100-lbf bipropellant engine slowed the spacecraft for capture by Saturn's gravity and has been used for major trajectory changes throughout the mission, including setting up the Grand Finale...

The R-4D derives its heritage from the Apollo program. The most recent variant, the High Performance Apogee Thruster (HiPAT) rocket engine, is the world's premier apogee insertion engine for geosynchronous spacecraft. The MR-103H derives its heritage from the Voyager missions (40 years on orbit and still operational) and its most recent variation provides attitude control for a variety of Low-Earth Orbit, Medium-Earth Orbit, geosynchronous and interplanetary spacecraft including New Horizons.

In late 2016, the Cassini spacecraft began its second to last set of orbits called the ring-grazing orbits. Following a gravity assist from Saturn's moon, Titan, the R-4D main engine was fired to fine-tune the trajectory, during which Cassini passed just outside of Saturn's main rings 20 times.

It was the 183rd and last planned firing of the main engine, and all remaining maneuvers were completed using Aerojet Rocketdyne's MR-103H thrusters.

posted 09-15-2017 07:51 PM            

It was the 183rd and last planned firing of the main engine, and all remaining maneuvers were completed using Aerojet Rocketdyne's MR-103H thrusters.

posted 09-16-2017 09:54 AM               

I'll tell you a little bit about that 76,000 miles per hour — it smears the dickens out of the images.

posted 09-16-2017 10:07 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
But you're absolutely right about the need to maintain vintage computer equipment (and the people who know how to operate it!).

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posted 09-19-2017 06:12 PM            

I've just watched her being interviewed at the launch viewing area saying: "For the first time I just want it out of here, get out of here, go!" (or words to that effect).

If you're really scared about a rocket exploding and showering the area with deadly plutonium, why stand that close to the launch pad?

posted 09-21-2017 04:40 PM               

The propellant remaining could be used for a few additional years of operations, but the scientific value of the observations during that time is much smaller than the scientific value of the mission's Grand Finale.

Over the past decade, Cassini data have revealed the potential of two moons of Saturn, Enceladus and Titan, to contain habitable — or at least "prebiotic" — environments. It is unlikely but possible that Cassini could someday collide with one of these moons if it were left in orbit around Saturn. Based upon exposure experiments on the International Space Station, it is known that some microbes and microbial spores from Earth are able to survive many years in the space environment — even with no air or water, and minimal protection from radiation.

Therefore, NASA has chosen to dispose of the spacecraft in Saturn's atmosphere to avoid the possibility that viable microbes from Cassini could potentially contaminate Saturn's moons — principally Enceladus, and to a lesser extent, Titan. This will ensure that Cassini cannot spoil future studies of habitability and potential life on those moons.

posted 11-09-2017 03:33 PM               

Soon after Cassini vaporized like a shooting star in the Saturnian sky, about 175 members of the mission’s engineering team gathered in an airy banquet room at the La Canada Flintridge Country Club to eulogize their spacecraft.

There was toasts and singing. But there were some misty eyes as well.

posted 11-21-2017 02:13 PM               

Cassini Image Mosaic: A Farewell to Saturn

In a fitting farewell to the planet that had been its home for over 13 years, the Cassini spacecraft took one last, lingering look at Saturn and its splendid rings during the final leg of its journey and snapped a series of images that has been assembled into a new mosaic.

Cassini's wide-angle camera acquired 42 red, green and blue images, covering the planet and its main rings from one end to the other, on Sept. 13, 2017. Imaging scientists stitched these frames together to make a natural color view. The scene also includes the moons Prometheus, Pandora, Janus, Epimetheus, Mimas and Enceladus.

There is much to remember and celebrate in marking the end of the mission. Cassini's exploration of Saturn and its environs was deep, comprehensive and historic.

"Cassini's scientific bounty has been truly spectacular -- a vast array of new results leading to new insights and surprises, from the tiniest of ring particles to the opening of new landscapes on Titan and Enceladus, to the deep interior of Saturn itself," said Robert West, Cassini's deputy imaging team leader at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The Cassini imaging team had been planning this special farewell view of Saturn for years. For some, when the end finally came, it was a difficult goodbye.

"It was all too easy to get used to receiving new images from the Saturn system on a daily basis, seeing new sights, watching things change," said Elizabeth Turtle, an imaging team associate at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland. "It was hard to say goodbye, but how lucky we were to be able to see it all through Cassini's eyes!"

For others, Cassini's farewell to Saturn is reminiscent of another parting from long ago.

"For 37 years, Voyager 1's last view of Saturn has been, for me, one of the most evocative images ever taken in the exploration of the solar system," said Carolyn Porco, former Voyager imaging team member and Cassini's imaging team leader at the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "In a similar vein, this 'Farewell to Saturn' will forevermore serve as a reminder of the dramatic conclusion to that wondrous time humankind spent in intimate study of our Sun's most iconic planetary system."

posted 09-10-2018 07:54 PM               

And the Emmy Goes to: Cassini's Grand Finale

JPL has won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Interactive Program for its coverage of the Cassini mission's Grand Finale at Saturn. The award was presented Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards in Los Angeles by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

Accepting the award were members of the JPL Media Relations and Public Engagement offices, and leaders of the Cassini Mission.

"This award represents the special magic that happens when we combine the stunning imagery and powerful science from a mission such as Cassini with the extraordinary talents of an innovative media and communications team. By honoring our interactive program on the Cassini Grand Finale, the Television Academy honored the great cause of space exploration, and I am tremendously proud of our Public Engagement and Media Relations teams for turning the end of a mission into a new beginning for communicating the wonders of our universe," said Michael Greene, the Lab's director for Communications and Education.

In 2017, after nearly 20 years in space and 13 years revealing the wonders of Saturn, NASA's Cassini orbiter was running out of fuel. As a final act, Cassini began a whole new mission — its Grand Finale. This journey into the unknown would end with a spectacular plunge into the planet. JPL created a multi-month digital campaign to celebrate the mission's science and engineering accomplishments and communicate why the spacecraft needed to meet its end in the skies of Saturn.

Cassini's first, daring dive into the unexplored space between the giant planet and its rings kicked off the campaign on April 26, 2017. It culminated on Sept. 15, 2017, with live coverage of Cassini's plunge into Saturn's atmosphere, with the spacecraft sending back science to the very last second.

"The Cassini team is tremendously grateful that our mission's amazing story was told in such a creative way by the communications team at JPL, and that the TV Academy has chosen to honor that story. Receiving an Emmy is one more amazing first for Cassini," said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize.

The multifaceted interactive campaign included regular updates on Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and the Cassini mission website; multiple live social, web and TV broadcasts during which reporter and public questions were answered; a dramatic short film to communicate the mission's story and preview its endgame; multiple 360-degree videos, including NASA's first 360-degree livestream of a mission event from inside JPL mission control; an interactive press kit; a steady drumbeat of articles to keep fans updated with news and features about the people behind the mission; state-standards aligned educational materials; a celebration of art by amateur space enthusiasts; and software to provide real-time tracking of the spacecraft, down to its final transmission to Earth.

"To an incredible spacecraft that could and did. To an amazing mission that guided her. To our public that followed her for 20 years before she plunged into Saturn but sent science to the end. Go NASA!" said Alice Wessen, manager at JPL's Public Engagement Office.

"Thank you to space fans, if you're a current space fan or future space fan. We can't fit you all into mission control but we can give you a virtual seat and we can put you at Saturn and we can put you at Mars," said Veronica McGregor, manager of JPL's Media Relations Office. "Thanks also to NASA and JPL for having a culture that tells us to shoot for the stars in all of our positions, whether we are explorers or storytellers. This is for science, for science literacy, and discovery."

The Creative Arts Emmys honor outstanding artistic and technical achievement in multiple categories including animation, casting, cinematography, costumes, visual effects, title design, interactive programs and more. Awards in over 50 categories were announced on Saturday. An edited version of the show will air on Sept. 15 on the FXX channel.