NASA’s Cassini spacecraft prepares to plunge into Saturn
NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is closing in on the end of its epic 20-year-long journey in space, as it prepares to take the final plunge into the atmosphere of Saturn. A gravitational kick in April from Saturn’s moon Titan placed the two-and-a-half tonne space probe on its path for impending destruction on September 15. However, several mission milestones have to occur over the coming two weeks to prepare the vehicle for one last burst of trailblazing science.
“The Cassini mission has been packed full of scientific firsts, and our unique planetary revelations will continue to the very end of the mission as Cassini becomes Saturn’s first planetary probe, sampling Saturn’s atmosphere up until the last second,” said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the US. “We’ll be sending data in near real time as we rush headlong into the atmosphere – it’s truly a first-of-its-kind event at Saturn,” said Spilker. The spacecraft is expected to lose radio contact with Earth within about one to two minutes after beginning its descent into Saturn’s upper atmosphere.
However, on the way down, before contact is lost, eight of Cassini’s 12 science instruments will be operating. In particular, the spacecraft’s ion …read more