Cassini Huygens mission

The most recent results from the successful Cassini-Huygens mission will be discussed in Sect. 11.1.1.3. 

Finally, and tantalizingly for this book and astrochemistry, there is Titan. The Cassini-Huygens mission is now in orbit in the Saturnian system as the book is published. The Huygens probe has already made the descent to the surface of Titan and the data have been transmitted back successfully. Scientists, astronomers, astrochemists and astribiologists are trying to understand it. I have taken a brief look at Titan as a case study to apply all that has been learnt and to review the possibilities for astrochemistry in what is surely to be a very exciting revelation of the structure and chemistry of Titan. 

The discovery of evidence of liquid water-ammonia eutectics on Titan provides a context for the potential for polar fluids outside what is normally regarded as the habitable zone. The stay of the Cassini-Huygens mission on the surface of Titan was brief, but this moon of Saturn is the locale that is most likely to support exotic life. The committee believes that it is important to consider whether the planned missions to the solar system should be reordered to permit returning to Titan earlier than now scheduled. 

This survey of the current state of knowledge of satellite geochemistry also uncovers the many areas where there are unsolved problems and major issues still to be addressed by future observations and theoretical work. On the observational side, most of the chemical information we now have for objects beyond the Galilean satellites comes from bulk density and global telescopic spectral data. The Cassini/Huygens mission, which arrives at Saturn in July of 2004, will allow more detailed study of all the satellites of this major system. In particular. Titan is now known primarily through detailed study of its upper atmosphere from Voyager and Earth-based... 

Source Linda J. Spilker, ed. Passage to a Ringed World The Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan. NASA Special Publication SP-533. Washington, D.C. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, October 1997, Chapter 3. 

Another occasional use of hydrogen during space missions is as a reference gas with specific scientific instruments. One example of this application involves the Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and its moon Titan that was launched in October 1997 and arrived at its destination during the summer of 2004 [106]. 

Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn Titan Homepage, http //saturn.jpl. nasa.gov/index.cfm, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena California. 

Vandermey, N., Paczkowski, B.G., 2006. The Cassini-Huygens mission overview. In AIAA-2006-5502, SpaceOps Conference. 

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