Cassini’s Final Farewell: Remembering the Saturn Probe’s Daring Mission

At 5:43 p.m. on October 15, 1997, Japan time, the Titan IV-B rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in (then) Florida, USA. On board was the Cassini spacecraft, part of the Cassini-Huygens mission to explore Saturn by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

[▲ Lancio del razzo “Titan IV-B” con a bordo la sonda Saturno “Cassini” (Credit: NASA)]

Cassini is a NASA spacecraft developed to closely observe Saturn, its rings and moons. It has a total length of 6.8 meters and is equipped with a high-gain antenna with a diameter of 4 meters because it will explore Saturn, which is very far from Earth. The power source uses a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG). The scientific equipment included cameras, spectrometers, space dust analyzers, magnetometers and radar. In addition to these instruments, Cassini also carries the ESA Huygens lander, which will land on Saturn’s moon Titan, which has a dense atmosphere and is believed to harbor life Ta.

[▲ La sonda Saturno “Cassini” sottoposta a test di vibrazione pre-lancio e test di vuoto termico (Credito: NASA)]

After leaving Earth, Cassini made two flybys of Venus (April 1998 and June 1999), once of Earth (August 1999), and once of Jupiter (December 2000).(*A method of modifying the orbit by exploiting the gravity of planets orbiting the sun)executed. On July 1, 2004, Japan time, seven years after its launch, it successfully entered orbit around Saturn.

[▲ Rappresentazione artistica della sonda Saturno “Cassini” che entra in orbita attorno a Saturno (Credito: NASA/JPL)]

On December 25, 2004, Japan time, Huygens separated from Cassini with the goal of landing on Titan in January of the following year. Huygens entered Titan’s atmosphere, opened a parachute, and descended, successfully making a soft landing on Titan’s surface on January 14, 2005, Japan time. As of September 2024, Huygens is the only spacecraft to have landed on Titan, carrying with it valuable data captured during the descent and after landing.

[▲ La superficie di Titano, luna di Saturno, fotografata dalla fotocamera del lander Huygens (Credito: NASA/JPL/ESA/Università dell’Arizona)]

Cassini, on the other hand, has also produced a series of data that lead to new knowledge about the Saturn system, including the complex structure of Saturn’s rings. Titan, where Huygens landed, has lakes of methane and ethane, and it turns out that it is a world where hydrocarbons circulate like on Earth where water circulates. Plumes of water ice (water columns, geysers) have erupted from the south pole of another moon, Enceladus, indicating the possibility of an internal ocean expanding beneath its outer shell of ice. It has been emphasized that life can exist in the internal ocean and Enceladus, together with Titan, has become a celestial body that attracts much attention from the point of view of the search for extraterrestrial life.

In addition to observing with various scientific instruments, Cassini acquired numerous images of Saturn and its satellites. Saturn has a unique beauty with its large rings, but its various satellites also conquer the hearts of the general public. Allow me to present some of them again.

[▲ Saturno fotografato dalla sonda Saturno “Cassini”. Foto scattata nell’aprile 2016 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)][▲ Saturno fotografato dalla sonda Saturno “Cassini”. Foto scattata nel luglio 2013 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)][▲ Saturno e la sua luna Titano fotografati dalla sonda Saturno Cassini. Foto scattata nel maggio 2012 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)][▲ Saturno, i suoi anelli e la sua luna Dione ripresi di lato dalla sonda Saturno Cassini. Foto scattata nel settembre 2005 (Credito: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)][▲ Titano, la luna di Saturno, fotografata dalla sonda Saturno Cassini. Foto scattata il 6 maggio 2012 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)][▲ La luna di Saturno Encelado fotografata dalla sonda Saturno Cassini. Foto scattata nel luglio 2005 (Credito: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)][▲ Mimas, la luna di Saturno, fotografata dalla sonda Saturno Cassini. Fotografato nel febbraio 2010 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)][▲ Le lune di Saturno Titano (a destra), Rea (in alto a sinistra) e Mimas (in basso a sinistra) brillano a forma di mezzaluna, fotografate dalla sonda di Saturno Cassini. Foto scattata a marzo 2015 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)][▲ Terra e Luna riprese dalla sonda Saturno “Cassini” mentre orbita attorno a Saturno (immagine ritagliata e ingrandita dalla telecamera ad angolo stretto). Foto scattata nel luglio 2013 (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI)]

In April 2017, Cassini’s mission entered its final, multi-month phase, known as the “Grand Finale.” The Grand Finale will fly closer to Saturn than ever before, making observations as it orbits between Saturn’s body and its previously uncharted rings a total of 22 times, and will also detect the possibility that Earth’s microbes might A Cassini was planned to eventually enter Saturn and end its mission. As mentioned earlier, it has been pointed out that there is a possibility of life on Saturn’s moons, and Cassini, which has run out of fuel and can no longer control its orbit, will crash into the satellite, preventing it from contaminating it. every possibility. This is to be done.

[▲ Rappresentazione artistica della sonda di Saturno “Cassini” che passa tra il corpo di Saturno e i suoi anelli (Credito: NASA/JPL-Caltech)]

Cassini, which acquired new data on Saturn’s magnetic field and internal structure during the grand finale and photographed nearby clouds and rings, entered Saturn’s atmosphere on September 15, 2017, Japan time. The final signal was received at 20:55 Japan time on the same day, marking the end of a historic mission that lasted 20 years since its launch. The data left by Cassini are still being studied and will continue to tell us unknown facts about Saturn and its moons.

[▲ Video di presentazione del gran finale della sonda Saturno “Cassini”]
(Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Source

• NASA – Cassini-Huygens
• ESA – Cassini-Huygens
• NASA/JPL – Photojournal

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