Goodbye Cassini: The End of a Mission
Music: Goodbye Cassini, your mission's fini. Bravo! Have some linguine. You showed us Saturn's rings and lots of pretty things. Hi, Titan's probe took a dive early 2005, landed on Titan, it was exciting. Your mission of failed to supplies dazzled our eyes. Now music, dive to Saturn, vaporize.
In 1997, an ambitious international mission launches to Saturn at wood for the first time attempt to place an orbiting spacecraft around the planet and land a probe on a moon in the outer solar system. But it was a mission that had to fight its way just to reach the launch pad. The journey to Saturn took seven long years, and being captured into orbit depended on what would happen during just three hours. We chased everything that could go wrong down the rabbit hole. We went down every path of if this goes wrong, what do we do? If that goes wrong, what do we do? This was one of those moments where you're either in orbit or you're a billion dollar flyby.
With Cassini safely in orbit, science quickly took center stage. Beginning with dazzling images of Saturn's rings, investigating Saturn's iconic rings will be just one part of what will turn out to be 13 years of discoveries about the Saturnian system. What will be realized about Saturn's moons will even transform how we think about our solar system and open up new pathways for the future of space exploration.
Titan: A Moon with the Potential for Life
Around one planet, we find two moons that could potentially have the key ingredients to support life. For some scientists, the Saturnian moon Titan has been a higher priority for exploration than even Saturn or any other planet. That's because Titan may resemble what Earth was like billions of years ago, making this moon a kind of time machine that preserves and deep freeze many of the conditions that led to life on our planet.
Titan is the only moon in our solar system having a dense atmosphere made mostly of nitrogen, just like the Earth. There are smaller amounts of methane and ethane that break down into organic compounds, creating the moon's smoggy orange haze. Titan's extremely cold temperatures turned some gases into liquids, which led scientists to wonder: could Titan have oceans made not of water but of liquid methane and ethane?
These questions made the unmasking of Titan a major objective of the Cassini-Huygens mission. And before the release of the Huygens probe, Cassini would have the first opportunity to see this moon close up. With hope sky high that the spacecraft might see Titan's surface, scientists were eager to share the five-hour plus flyby live with the world.
The Mystery of Titan Unveiled
And you're watching live coverage from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Tonight, the Cassini spacecraft has its first close encounter with Saturn's largest and most intriguing moon, Titan. This is the closest we have ever been to Titan, and over the next five and a half hours, we hope to see the best images we have ever seen of Titan. And here on NASA TV, you will see those images just minutes after they actually arrive on the ground.
But it quickly became apparent that Titan wasn't ready for its first close-up. What appeared at first glance to be black and white smudges left scientists and viewers alike puzzled as to what they were seeing. Look at that! Look at that! And we don't know what it is. Anything stand out in your mind at this point? Yeah, it's been a very strange evening. If you put me against a wall and said what's cloud and what isn't cloud, I really couldn't tell you. I assume that much of this is surface features.
Understanding it's a different issue. And one of the things that all of us on the project have been talking about for a long time is this sort of cooperative science approach. We knew Titan was a tough target, was going to hold its secrets tightly, and so we designed this mission and the experiments to hit it with everything we've got. This is our first chance to do that really. We're really going to have to do a full-up complete body scan of Titan to figure out what's going on.
This encounter confirmed that Titan would be as complex as it was obscure. Fortunately, there are many more Cassini flybys still ahead. But next up to explore Titan is the
The Huygens Probe Mission
The Cassini team, including leaders of the Huygens Probe, are preparing for the descent into Titan. The Huygens Probe will be on its own for the next 21 days, freefalling towards Titan. The Cassini team can relax and enjoy the holidays, including sponsoring a float in the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. The float features nine JPL missions, with Cassini being the centerpiece.
The Descent to Titan
The Huygens Probe will attempt the most distant landing ever. The descent through Titan's atmosphere is expected to take more than two hours. The hope is that the probe's batteries will last long enough to reach the surface. The probe has been designed to float, as there could be lakes or seas of methane on Titan.
The Plunge through Titan's Atmosphere
The Huygens Probe will face extreme conditions as it plunges through Titan's atmosphere. The entry speed is over 12,000 miles per hour, and temperatures soar over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. If the heat shield does its job, the science instruments inside the probe will be protected from the inferno taking place just inches away.
The Landing and Discoveries
After surviving the initial phase of the descent, the Huygens Probe deploys parachutes and lands on Titan. The probe's batteries are still working, and it discovers a dried-up riverbed and rocks made of frozen water. Cassini will continue to provide global reconnaissance of Titan, using its powerful radar to map the moon's surface.
Titan's Fascinating Features
Titan reveals a continentsized area named Xanadu, with canyons and mountains that resemble no other place on the moon. There are deep lakes and seas, and even evidence of volcanoes that gush out an icy mixture of water and other materials. Scientists wonder if Titan could possibly support life.
Titan's Weather and Seasons
Titan has weather and seasons, with methane rain and a methane cycle similar to Earth's water cycle. The atmosphere's chemistry is more complex than expected, and the entire system is as intricate as Earth. Cassini also investigates Saturn's moon Enceladus and discovers unexpected signs of ionized water vapor molecules.
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