Cassini Orbiter

Important weather details are not only provided by the newest information from the Cassini orbiter the Very Large Telescope in the Atacama desert and the W. M. Keck Observatory on Hawaii are also involved. Near-IR spectra show increased cloudiness in the Titanian troposphere on the morning side, i.e., there are methane clouds at a height of about 30 km and methane drizzle at the surface (Adamkovics et al., 2007). 

The Cassim-Huygens spacecraft consists of two parts. Cassini is the orbiter, designed to attain orbit around Saturn, while Huygens is a space probe, designed to be released into the atmosphere of the planet s moon, Titan. NASA was responsible for the design and construction of the Cassini orbiter, while ESA was responsible for the Huygens probe. 

Cassini Orbiter (Satinn, its Rings and Satellites) Laimched on October 15,1997... 

ROBERT SAMUELSON was a research scientist at the Goddard Space Flight Center for 39 years and is presently a research associate with the Astronomy Department at the University of Maryland. His specialities include radiative transfer in scattering atmospheres and the interpretation of radiometric and spectroscopic data from ground-based and space-borne infrared instruments. He is a co-investigator for the Cassini Orbiter infrared spectrometer and the Huygens Probe aerosol collec-tor/pyrolizer experiment. 

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. 

Some of the elements of war have found a place in peacetime. The same kind of reaction in uranium that makes an atomic bomb explode can be controlled to make electricity in a nuclear power plant. The Cassini spacecraft now orbiting the planet Saturn runs on plutonium fuel. Plutonium-based fuel was also used to power devices that the Apollo 14 astronauts left on the Moon, such as a seismometer left to detect movements of the Moons crust. The Voyager spacecraft also sent its golden record out to the stars with... 

In lune 2004, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft began orbiting Saturn and transmitting images to Earth. The closest distance between Saturn and Earth is 746 million miles. What is the minimum amormt of time it takes for the transmitted signals to travel from the spacecraft to Earth ... 

In the quest to explore space and find signs for extraferresfial life, the Cassini mission was launched in 1997 to reach Saturn in 2004. The spacecraft has been orbiting this planet ever since, exploring its surroundings, including its moons. In the photo shown. Earth is an invisible spec in the top left quadrant. 

This satellite of Saturn is also designated as Saturn IV. Its semi major axis is 377 396 km, the orbital period is 2.73 d. The mean radius is 561 km and its mean density is 1.47 g/cm. Because of this relatively low density, this satellite must be mainly composed of water, about 45% seems to be silicate rocks which are mainly concentrated in its interior. Like Rhea its trailing and leading hemisphere are dissimilar. On its surface, wisps were found (see Fig. 4.12) which were identified by the fiyby of the Cassini probe in December 2004 as bright ice cliffs created by tectonics. 

The Cassini plasma spectrometer detected water-group pick-up ions in a toroidal region which is located along the orbit of Enceladus. The source of these ions is the cryovolcanic activity near the South pole. The density is estimated at about 5.2 cm which corresponds to about 8% of the total ion intensity (Tokar et al., 2008 [338]). 

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