All Eyes on US-European Saturn Mission

Color: This image Saturn's "A Ring" was taken by the Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph as Cassini-Huygens passed through the planet's rings on June 30 during its insertion into orbit. NASA/JPL/University of Colorado

Now that the US-European Cassini-Huygens space probe has safely entered its orbit around Saturn and is sending back spectacular images and data, scientists are hoping things go equally well in December 2004 and January 2005 when the European lander Huygens is to separate from the orbiter and land on the moon Titan.

Cassini-Huygens is a joint US-European mission, with the European Space Agency (ESA) providing the Huygens lander. The Italian space agency (ASI) provided Cassini’s high-gain communication antenna. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) built the Cassini orbiter and is managing the mission. Of the 18 instruments onboard both Cassini and Huygens, Germany is participating in 11 and led the development and construction of  two instruments.

Suspense and Success

The suspense of whether the Cassini-Huygens mission would successfully enter Saturn’s orbit on July 1 or miss its target and go drifting off into outer space focused much world attention on the international project and its ultimate success.

“This shows international space cooperation at its best,” said ESA’s Director of Science, Prof. David Southwood, after confirmation of the orbit insertion. “Few deep-space planetary missions have carried the hopes of such a large community of scientists and space enthusiasts around the world. Congratulations to the teams in the US and Europe who made this possible and to all participants in the program, who have a lot to do over the years ahead.”

Saturn ESA photo

International Cooperation

The mission is named for the Italian astronomer and researcher of Saturn, Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712), and the Dutch researcher who discovered Titan, Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695). Cassini-Huygens was launched from Kennedy Space Center in Florida in October 1997 and has used the gravitational pulls of Venus, the Earth and Jupiter to propel it through space. Cassini will orbit Saturn for four years, gathering information on Saturn and its ring system, among other topics.

In addition to the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt or DLR), the Max Planck Society and several German universities are participating in the scientific work of Cassini-Huygens.

Of the estimated EUR 2.7-billion total cost of the Cassini-Huygens mission, ESA is providing EUR 360 million; the Italian space agency EUR 145 million; NASA EUR 2.1 billion; and universities and research institutions another EUR 100 million. Germany’s contribution to the mission totals about EUR 115 million.

Destination Titan

Titan is the largest of Saturn’s 31 moons, larger than the planets Mercury and Pluto and with its own atmosphere. If all goes as planned, Huygens will separate from Cassini on Christmas Day 2004, coast toward Titan’s dense atmosphere for 21 days, and then “awaken” and gather data as it descends through the atmosphere to the surface for 2.5 hours.

July 7, 2004

Links

European Space Agency

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Italian Space Agency

German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt or DLR)

Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research

Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Phsyics (in German only)

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