* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: The Cassini spacecraft

Blobrana · L

Cassini Celebrates 10 Years Since Jupiter Encounter

Ten years ago, on Dec. 30, 2000, NASA's Cassini spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter on its way to orbiting Saturn. The main purpose was to use the gravity of the largest planet in our solar system to slingshot Cassini towards Saturn, its ultimate destination. But the encounter with Jupiter, Saturn's gas-giant big brother, also gave the Cassini project a perfect lab for testing its instruments and evaluating its operations plans for its tour of the ringed planet, which began in 2004.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Cassini Back to Normal, Ready for Enceladus

NASA's Cassini spacecraft resumed normal operations today, Nov. 24. All science instruments have been turned back on, the spacecraft is properly configured and Cassini is in good health. Mission managers expect to get a full stream of data during next week's flyby of the Saturnian moon Enceladus.
The flyby on Nov. 30 will bring Cassini to within about 48 kilometers (30 miles) of the surface of Enceladus. At 61 degrees north latitude, this encounter and its twin three weeks later at the same altitude and latitude, are the closest Cassini will come to the northern hemisphere surface of Enceladus during the extended Solstice mission.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Cassini to Resume Nominal Operations

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., expect the Cassini spacecraft will resume normal operations on Nov. 24. They have traced the steps taken by an onboard computer before Cassini put itself in precautionary "safe mode" last week.
Mission managers determined that the spacecraft went into safe mode because of a flip of a bit in the command and data system computer. The bit flip prevented the computer from registering an important instruction, and the spacecraft, as programmed, went into the standby mode. Engineers are still working to understand why the bit flipped.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Engineers Assessing Cassini Spacecraft

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are working to understand what caused NASA's Cassini spacecraft to put itself into "safe mode," a precautionary standby mode. Cassini entered safe mode around 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, Nov. 2.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Cassini Hunting Enceladus 'Tigers' with Night Vision

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be hunting for heat signatures at the "tiger stripes" in the dim south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus on Friday, Aug. 13. The closest approach will bring the spacecraft to within about 2,500 kilometres of the surface of Enceladus.
Read more

Blobrana · L

Cassini to Dive Low through Titan Atmosphere

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will be taking its own deep plunge through the Titan atmosphere this week.
The altitude for the upcoming Titan flyby, whose closest approach occurs in the evening of July 6, Pacific and Eastern time (or shortly after midnight on July 7, Coordinated Universal Time) will be about 125 kilometres higher than the super-low flyby of June 21. The altitude of this flyby - 1,005 kilometres -- is still considered a low dip into Titan's atmosphere. Cassini will not go lower again until May 2012.
Read more

Blobrana · L

The Cassini spacecraft will make a distant flyby of Pan and Polydeuces on the 19th June, 2010.

Blobrana · L

Cassini Getting the Lowdown on Titan This Weekend

NASA's Cassini spacecraft will take its lowest dip through the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan in the early morning of June 21 UTC, which is the evening of June 20 Pacific time. This weekend's flyby, which is the 71st Titan flyby of the mission even though it is known as "T70," takes Cassini 70 kilometres lower than it has ever been at Titan before.
Read more

-- Edited by Blobrana on Friday 18th of June 2010 11:49:35 AM

Blobrana · L

On this day in 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft made a close flyby of Phoebe, an irregular satellite of Saturn.
Phoebe was the first target encountered upon the arrival of CassiniHuygens to the Saturn system in 2004.