Cassini

Launch Date/Time: 15 October 1997 at 08:43 UTC

Launch Vehicle: Titan IV-Centaur

Planned on-orbit mass: 2175 Kg

Power System: Radioisotope Thermal Generators (RTGs) of 630 W

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The Cassini Orbiter's mission consists of delivering a probe (called Huygens, provided by ESA) to Titan, and then remaining in orbit around Saturn for detailed studies of the planet and its rings and satellites. The principal objectives are to: (1) determine the three-dimensional structure and dynamical behavior of the rings; (2) determine the composition of the satellite surfaces and the geological history of each object; (3) determine the nature and origin of the dark material on Iapetus' leading hemisphere; (4) measure the three-dimensional structure and dynamical behavior of the magnetosphere; (5) study the dynamical behavior of Saturn's atmosphere at cloud level; (6) study the time variability of Titan's clouds and hazes; and, (7) characterize Titan's surface on a regional scale. The spacecraft was originally planned to be the second three-axis stabilized, RTG-powered Mariner Mark II, a class of spacecraft developed for missions beyond the orbit of Mars. However, various budget cuts and rescopings of the project have forced a more special design, postponing indefinitely any implementation of the Mariner Mark II series.

Source: nasa.gov

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The 14-member NASA-selected imaging science team will use the camera to investigate many features of Saturn, its moons and its rings. Cassini will begin a four-year prime mission in orbit around Saturn when it arrives on July 1, 2004. It will release a piggybacked probe, Huygens, to descend through the thick atmosphere of Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

Many UA planetary scientists and their students are directly involved in the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn.

	Robert H. Brown, team leader for the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS)
	Jonathan I. Lunine, interdisciplinary scientist for the Cassini mission
	Martin Tomasko, principal investigator for the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) that will be deployed to the surface of Titan on the Huygens probe
	Peter Smith, co-investigator on DISR
	Ralph Lorenz, member of the Cassini Radar Team and co-investigator on the Surface Science Package on the Huygens probe
	Donald Hunten, co-investigator on the Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer on the Huygens probe
	* Roger Yelle, team member for the Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer

Source: spaceref.com