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Cassini Probe - Blog Posts
Saturn as seen from the Cassini probe
A view of Saturn from the Cassini probe
via reddit
September 15
This one is technically not yet history, because at the time of posting, the little craft has about half an hour left to go. That said, let’s proceed.
In 2017, NASA’s Cassini space probe ended its twenty-year mission at Saturn. After a nearly-seven-year-long journey there, it orbited the ringed planet for 13 years and just over two months, gathering copious amounts of information about the planet, said rings, and many of its moons. It landed an ESA probe called Huygens on Titan, the first-ever soft landing in the outer Solar System. It discovered lakes, seas, and rivers of methane on Titan, geysers of water erupting from Enceladus (and passed within 50 miles of that moon’s surface), and found gigantic, raging hurricanes at both of Saturn’s poles.
And the images it returned are beautiful enough to make you weep.
On this day in 2017, with the fuel for Cassini’s directional thrusters running low, the probe was de-orbited into the Saturnian atmosphere to prevent any possibility of any contamination of possible biotic environments on Titan or Enceladus. The remaining thruster fuel was used to keep the radio dish pointed towards Earth so the probe could transmit information about the upper atmosphere of Saturn while it was burning up due to atmospheric friction.
This is us at our best. We spent no small amount of money on a nuclear-powered robot, launched it into space, sent it a billion miles away, and worked with it for two decades just to learn about another planet. And when the repeatedly-extended missions were through, we made the little craft sacrifice itself like a samurai, performing its duty as long as it could while it became a shooting star in the Saturnian sky.
Rhea occulting Saturn
Water geysers on Enceladus
Strange Iapetus
Look at this gorgeousness
A gigantic motherfucking storm in Saturn’s northern hemisphere
Tethys
This image is from the surface of a moon of a planet at least 746 million miles away. Sweet lord
Mimas
Vertical structures in the rings. Holy shit
Titan and Dione occulting Saturn, rings visible
Little Daphnis making gravitational ripples in the rings
That’s here. That’s home. That’s all of us that ever lived.
Saturn, backlit
A polar vortex on the gas giant
Icy Enceladus
(All images from NASA/JPL)
YO THAT SHIT BALLER AS FUCK HOLY SHIT
An episode late is better than none at all! Hear about satellites, space probes, orbiters, and landers through history.
Below the cut are sources, music credits, an awesome infographic showing all the satellites currently in orbit around Earth, a vocab list, and the transcript of this episode. Let me know what you think I should research next by messaging me here, tweeting at me at @HDandtheVoid, or asking me to my face if you know me in real life. And please check out the podcast on iTunes, rate it or review it if you’d like, subscribe, and maybe tell your friends about it if you think they’d like to listen!
(My thoughts on the next episode were space race history, the transit of Venus, or maybe something about the Moon landing. I’m prepping to interview a friend about her graduate-level research into the history of the universe and possibly dark matter, too. Let me know by the 8th and I’ll hopefully have the next podcast up on September 18th!)
Glossary
Clarke Belt - an area of geostationary orbit in Earth’s atmosphere, 35,786 km directly above the equator, where a satellite orbits the Earth at the same speed the Earth is rotating.
geostationary orbit - when an object orbits directly above the equator and appears stationary to observers on Earth’s surface.
geosynchronous orbit - when an object orbits Earth at an orbital period that matches Earth's rotation on its axis. From the perspective of an observer on Earth's surface, the object would return to the exact same position in the sky after a period of one day.
gyroscopes - a device consisting of several rings that spin freely around different axes. The rapidly rotating wheel has a large moment of inertia and therefore resists change from the plane in which it is rotated. Large gyroscopes allow for steady navigation of ships, submarines, and space ships. See examples in the link.
heliosheath - the outer region of the heliosphere. It is just beyond termination shock, the point where solar wind abruptly slows down and becomes denser and hotter as it presses outward against the approaching wind in interstellar space.
heliosphere - a huge wind sock-shaped bubble that extends beyond Pluto’s orbit and contains our solar system, solar wind, and the entire solar magnetic field.
lander - a spacecraft launched with the intent to land it, unharmed and fully functioning, on the surface of an object that is astronomical in nature. It is aimed at a specific target that astronomers want to learn more about and investigates the object at the surface level. It can be manned or unmanned.
orbiter - an unmanned spacecraft launched with the intent to bring it into orbit around a larger body in order to study that body. It is similar to a satellite but does not orbit Earth.
probe - an unmanned machine sent into space to collect data. It is aimed at a specific target that astronomers want to learn more about.
spacecraft - a pilot-able vehicle used for traveling in space. It can be manned or unmanned.
Van Allen Belts - belts of radiation in Earth’s atmosphere.
Transcript
Sources
Timeline of space exploration to 2013 via the National Archives
Timeline of NASA, the space shuttle, and near-Earth space flights
Space exploration timeline via Sea and Sky
Gyroscope definition via USC
Infographic on satellites launched 1950-1978 via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
List of satellites via Wikipedia
A history of Sputnik via an excerpt from Paul Dickson’s book Sputnik: The Shock of the Century on PBS
“Instead of being concerned with winning the first round of the space race, Eisenhower and his National Security Council were much more interested in launching surveillance satellites that could tell American intelligence where every Soviet missile was located.”
Explorer 1 overview via NASA
Vanguard 1 overview via NASA
SCORE overview via the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
Pioneer lunar mission overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Various probe/satellite mission overviews via NASA
Australian WRESAT mission via Australia’s Department of Defence
Pioneer expeditions via NASA
Mariner 10 mission overview via NASA
Magellan mission overview via NASA
Synthetic aperture radar overview via radartutorial.edu
MESSENGER mission overview via JHU Applied Physics Lab
Mariner missions to Venus overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Mariner missions to Mars overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
“The final Mariner to Mars, however, was the lab’s greatest planetary success to date.”
Mariner 9 via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Viking mission overview via NASA
Pathfinder/Sojourner mission overview via NASA
Opportunity mission overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Spirit mission overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Curiosity rover via NASA
Pioneer 10 mission overview via NASA
Pioneer 11 mission overview via NASA
Juno mission overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Cassini-Huygens mission overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Voyager mission overview via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
“The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.”
Voyager mission trackers via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Heliosphere definition via NASA
Heliosheath definition via NASA
New Horizons mission overview via NASA
Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory via NASA
Chandra X-Ray Observatory via NASA
Spitzer Space Telescope via CalTech
Einstein Observatory (HEAO-2) via NASA
International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) via NASA
International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) via ESA
Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) via NASA
Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and Astrophysics (ASCA, formerly ASTRO-D) via NASA archives
Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) via JHU
Active space probe/observatory missions via NASA
Chandrayaan-1 via the CalTech Jet Propulsion Lab
Hayabusa 2 mission overview via NASA
Hayabusa-2’s twitter account
A map of every active satellite orbiting Earth via Quartz
Union of Concerned Scientists Satellite Database
Cul-de-Sac comic by Richard Thompson
“Well, there’s dust everywhere, and there’s all kinds of trash—food wrappers and broken parts of things and gloves and shoes. And gas giants and black holes and rocks and dirt. And there’s old TV shows and strange creatures and there’s unidentifiable stuff that no one can explain. And it’s expanding all the time. Toss in a few trillion stuffed toys and it’d be just like your room.”
Intro Music: ‘Better Times Will Come’ by No Luck Club off their album Prosperity
Filler Music: ‘Satellite’ by Guster off their album Ganging Up On The Sun
Filler Music: ‘Sunn’ by Radical Face off his album Sunn Moonn Eclippse. Check out the video in the album link, it’s amazing.
Outro Music: ‘Fields of Russia’ by Mutefish off their album On Draught.
The Cassini probe took a picture of Saturn that includes Earth in it!
Cassini has actually taken a ton of cool photos of Saturn if you want to check those out in the wake of last week’s planets podcast.
Cassini prepares for final orbital “Grand Finale” at Saturn.
Erik Wernquist, the same filmmaker who created 2014’s “Wanderers” and a stunning New Horizons promotional film in 2015, has created a new video highlighting NASA’s Cassini mission’s final days at Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft will begin its final series of orbits to cap a 13-year groundbreaking science mission known as the Grand Finale. For the first time ever in Cassini’s time at Saturn, the spacecraft will fly in between the planet’s rings and atmosphere. No spacecraft has ever before flown in this region of any of the solar system’s ringed planets. After 20 orbits, Cassini will dive into Saturn’s upper atmosphere September 15 where it will be destroyed. In 2008, mission managers explored a range of End of Mission scenarios that would protect Saturn’s moon’s from Earthly contaminants before ultimately deciding on atmospheric reentry. Cassini began her End of Mission manoeuvres on November 26, 2016, when it began the first of 20 ring-grazing orbits. A close flyby of Titan April 22 will alter the spacecraft’s trajectory to begin the first of 23 orbits in the Grand Finale, which will begin April 26.
Cassini launched from Earth on October 20, 1997, and entered Saturn orbit July 1, 2004. 16 days later, the European-built Huygens probe attached to the spacecraft landed on Titan, becoming the first probe to land in the outer solar system. Originally scheduled for a four-year mission ending in 2008, Cassini received two mission extensions in 2008 and 2010, with the latter ending in 2017. With the spacecraft’s fuel reserves low, the Cassini team decided to end the mission. P/C: JPL/Erik Wernquist
Solar System: Things to Know This Week
Like sailors of old, the Cassini mission team fondly thinks of the spacecraft as “she." On April 22, she begins her Grand Finale, a spectacular end game—22 daring dives between the planet’s atmosphere and innermost rings. Here are 10 things to know about her Grand Finale.
1. She’s Broadcasting Live This Week
On Tuesday, April 4 at 3 p.m. EDT (noon PDT), At Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Cassini team host a news briefing to discuss the mission’s Grand Finale.
Tune in Tuesday: youtube.com/nasajpl/live
2. She’s Powered in Part By … Titan
Cassini left Earth with less than 1/30th of the propellant needed to power all her adventures at Saturn. The navigation team used the gravity of Saturn’s giant moon Titan to change course and extend the spacecraft’s exploration of Saturn. Titan also provides the gravity assist to push Cassini into its final orbits.
More on Cassini’s navigation: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft/navigation/
3. She’s a Robot
Cassini is an orbiter that was named for 18th century astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini. She was designed to be captured by Saturn’s gravity and then explore it in detail with a suite of 12 powerful science instruments.
More on the Spacecraft: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft/cassini-orbiter/
4. She Brought a Friend to Saturn
Cassini carried the European Space Agency’s Huygens Probe, which in 2005 descended through Titan’s thick, perpetual clouds and made the most distant landing to date in our solar system.
More on Huygens: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/spacecraft/huygens-probe/
5. She’s a Great Photographer
Your mobile phone likely captures dozens of megapixels in images. Cassini, using 1990s technology closer to one megapixel cameras, has returned some of the most stunning images in the history of solar system exploration.
Cassini Hall of Fame Images: go.nasa.gov/2oec6H2 More on Cassini’s Cameras: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/imaging-science-subsystem/
6. She’s an Inspiration
Those great images have inspired artist’s and amateur image processors to create truly fantastic imagery inspired by the beauty of Saturn. Feeling inspired? There’s still time to share your Cassini-inspired art with us.
Cassini Inspires Campaign: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/cassiniinspires/
7. She’s Got a Long History
Two decades is a long time to live in the harsh environment of outer space (respect to the fast-approaching 40-year-old twin Voyager spacecraft). Launched in 1997, Cassini logged a lot of milestones over the years.
Explore the Cassini Timeline: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/the-journey/timeline/
8. She Keeps a Diary
And, you can read it. Week after week going back to 1997, Cassini’s adventures, discoveries and status have been chronicled in the mission’s weekly significant events report.
Read It: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/?topic=121
9. She’s Got a Fancy New App
Cassini was the prototype for NASA’s Eyes on the Solar System 3-D visualization software, so it’s fitting the latest Cassini module in the free, downloadable software is the most detailed, elaborate visualization of any mission to date.
Fly the Mission - Start to Finish: http://eyes.nasa.gov/cassini
10. She’s Going Out in a Blaze of Glory
In addition to all the new information from 22 orbits in unexplored space, Cassini’s engineers reprogrammed the spacecraft to send back details about Saturn’s atmosphere to the very last second before the giant planet swallows her up on Sept. 15, 2017.
More on the Grand Finale: saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/grandfinale
Discover more lists of 10 things to know about our solar system HERE.
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