cassini-huygens mission to saturn overview
DESCRIPTION
The international Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997 and had a marathon 7-year 2-billion mile journey to the distant planet Saturn. The 23-foot tall, 14-foot wide, 6-ton spacecraft is the largest most sophisticated outer planet spacecraft ever built, and is in its third year of operation in orbit around the planet Saturn. Cassini-Huygens has been returning extraordinary data about the entire Saturn system: the spectacular rings; the numerous icy satellites with a variety of unique surface features; the giant planet itself; a huge magneto-sphere teeming with particles that interact with the rings and moons; and the intriguing moon Titan, which is slightly larger than the planet Mercury, and whose hazy atmosphere is denser than that of Earth. This talk will be an overview of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn with a summary of the top science returns of its first three years in orbit. The Minnesota Space Grant Consortium, run out of the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics at the University of Minnesota, hosts Trina Ray of NASA JPL on January 22, 2008.TRANSCRIPT
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Cassini-Huygens Mission to SaturnOverview
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JPL Overview
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NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, managed by the California Institute of Technology, is the world leader in robotic exploration of the solar system.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov
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Mission Overview
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Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) Dutch scientist, who discovered the true nature of Saturn’s rings, and in 1655, Titan
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625-1712), Italo-French astronomer, who discovered several of Saturn’s satellites: Iapetus, Rhea, Tethys and Dione. In 1675, he discovered what is today called “Cassini Division” the gap in-between the two
main rings of Saturn
Huygens and CassiniHuygens and CassiniThe The ScientistsScientists and the Machinesand the Machines
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Cassini Orbiter & Huygens Probe
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Launched on October 15, 1997 from KSC
7 year cruise on VVEJGA trajectory
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Cassini Spacecraft
Cassini Spacecraft Specs• Height: 6.8 m (22 ft)• Diameter: 4 m (13 ft)• Mass: 2125 kg (2.8 tons)
(fueled+probe): 5700 kg (6 tons)
• Power: 700 Watts at SOI• .5 GB recorder• Huygens Probe:
320 kg (~700 lbs)
Cassini Instruments:
Optical Remote Sensing (ORS)CIRS: Composite Infrared SpectrometerISS: Imaging Science SubsystemUVIS: Ultraviolet Imaging SpectrographVIMS: Visual and Infrared mapping Spectrometer
Microwave Remote SensingRADAR: Cassini RadarRSS: Radio Science Subsystem
Magnetospherie and Plasma Science (MAPS)CDA: Cosmic Dust AnalyzerINMS: Ion and Neutral Mass SpectrometerMAG: Dual Technique MagnetometerMIMI: Magnetospheric Imaging InstrumentRPWS: Radio and Plasma Wave Science
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Cost• Cassini total cost $3 billion
– $2.5 B NASA for Cassini, $0.5 B ESA for Huygens– Spread over ~20 y -> $150 M/y– Cassini 0.5% of NASA annual budget ($16.8 B)
• NASA annual budget $16.8 B– 1.7% of U.S. discretionary spending ($982 B)– 0.6% total U.S. budget ($2800 B)
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Tour Overview4 year Prime Mission– 75 orbits– 45 targeted Titan flybys– 8 targeted icy satellite flybys
5 Science Objectives– Titan– Saturn– Rings– Icy Satellites– Magnetosphere
Tour (Petal) movie
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#1: Huygens on Titan
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Why Titan?
• Diameter – 5150km; larger than Mercury and Pluto• Only planetary satellite with a dense atmosphere• Surface: P: 1.5 X Earth’s; T: 94 K (-179 C)• Composition – Nitrogen (N2); Methane (CH4) and
rich array of hydrocarbons (CxHx) and nitriles(HCN)
• Surface – obscured by photochemical haze• Murky atmosphere may be similar to that which
existed on Earth before life formed. • Most Earth-like body in the solar system: rivers,
lakes, seas, mountains, dunes, channels, winds, volcanos, thick atmosphere - chemically complex
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Huygens Separation & EntryRelease: December 24, 2004Decent: January 14, 2005Data Collection:
•Decent: 2h 27m•Surface: 1h 12m•Radiometric: 5h 52m
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The Huygens Descent
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The Surface of Titan
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Arial view of Titan
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Huygens “News”
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#2: Enceladus
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Slide 22
National Geographic, 1981
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Enceladus, July 14, 2005Enceladus, July 14, 2005
175 km flyby!!
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Two UVIS stellar occultations. The one in July identified a local atmosphere around the south pole.
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Enceladus Flyby: 12 November 2005
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GEYSER COMPOSITIONGEYSER COMPOSITION(Waite (Waite et al.et al. 2006; Hansen 2006; Hansen et al.,et al., 2006)2006)
H2O 91 ± 3 % wt.
CO2 3.2 ± 0.6 % wt.
N2 4 ± 1 % wt.*
CH4 1.6 ± 0.4 % wt.
CO < 0.9 % wt
NH3, HCN, C2H2, C3H8 < 0.5 % wt. (i.e., detected)
*Inferred from a combination of INMS and UVIS data
HH22OO 91 91 ±± 3 % wt. 3 % wt.
COCO22 3.2 3.2 ±± 0.6 % wt. 0.6 % wt.
NN22 4 4 ±± 1 % wt.*1 % wt.*
CHCH44 1.6 1.6 ±± 0.4 % wt.0.4 % wt.
COCO < 0.9 % wt< 0.9 % wt
NHNH33, HCN, C, HCN, C22HH22, C, C33HH88 < 0.5 % wt. (< 0.5 % wt. (i.ei.e., detected)., detected)
*Inferred from a combination of INMS and UVIS data*Inferred from a combination of INMS and UVIS data
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Slide 30
Why the South Pole?Nimmo and Pappalardo (2006)
• Low-density silicate or icediapir can be sufficient toovercome the equatorialbulge and reorient Enceladus
• Resulting stresses may be consistent with the observedtectonic patterns
• Few mgal gravity anomaly: mightbe detectable by Cassini?
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Avg Earth87 mW/m2
EnceladusSouth Polar Terrain250 mW/m2
Tiger Stripes13,000 mW/m2
Planetary Heat FlowPlanetary Heat Flow
Yellowstone2500 mW/m2
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Slide 34
16 MW16 MW160 MW160 MWTidal heating, solid ice rigidity, Q = 20
0.00470.0206Orbital Eccentricity
3.9 RS3.1 RSDistance from Saturn
1.61.2Density
504 km420 kmDiameter
EnceladusMimasBistable tidal heating?
• Enceladus is warm, dissipative, stays warm.• Mimas is cold, rigid, stays cold.
Need a way to “kick start”Enceladus initially
NASA/JPL/SSI
“Mimas Paradox”
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#3: Titan from Space
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Titan: the most EarthTitan: the most Earth--like body in the Solar Systemlike body in the Solar Systemmid-latitude streaksdetached haze
lakes
aeolian patterns
few craters
river channelsmountainshuge cloud system
wind driven dunes
drainage channels
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ISS mapTitan @ 938 nm
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VIMS map (r = 5 µm; g = 2 µm; b = 1.6 µm)
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RADAR map (TA-T30)
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87°W 20°N
16°W 11°N
Impact basin (above) is about 450 km in diameter Impact crater (left) is about 80 km in diameter
100 km
Impact Craters
Cryovolcano and surface flows
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“Cat Scratches” = Dunes?
Longitudinal DunesArabian Peninsula
Dunes probably consist of wind-blown hydrocarbon particles
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Lucky Number 13
Circular feature Guabonito may not
be an impact crater after all
Wispy terrain to east of Shikoku(Great Britain) resembles dunes
seen in earlier SAR data
This complex area of hilly terrain and erosional channels is located atop Xanadu, the continent-sized region
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A Titan Lake?
Cassini had seen several “suspiciouslylacustrine features”…
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…until finally Cassini found the Titan equivalent of Minnesota.
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detached haze150 km higherthan observed
by Voyager
Titan's Atmospheric Variability
South-polar convective clouds
mid-latitude streaksSeasonalchanges inweatherpatterns
complex, variable haze structure
VIMS images of mid-latitude clouds
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What Would the INMS Measure in Other Ionospheres?
We have discovered that Titan has the most chemically complex ionosphere in the solar system. There are likely strongconnections to neutral chemistry; these are still being explored.
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#4: Saturn Orbit Insertionand the
Rev 28 occultation Images
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SOI Trajectory
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X
Saturn Orbit Insertion Ring Plane Crossing
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Approach picture from Cassini:
May 10, 2004
Dist: 27 million km.
Pixel: 161 km.
Moon: Prometheus
Cassini ISS image: Space Science Institute (Boulder), NASA/JPL.
F
Cassini Division
ABC
Encke GapW~350 km
The main rings
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Complex Rings
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Rev 28 Occultation
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For the first time, we can see all the rings clearly in a single image!
No need for these artist’s renditions anymore.
E-Ring G-RingF-Ring
A-RingB-Ring C-Ring
CassiniDivision
D-Ring
There is a lot going on in this image, so let’s take a closer look….
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On the planet, we see the light blocked by the rings
Out here, we see the light scattered by the rings
C DBA CD
ACD
B
C
The non-trivial relationship betweenbrightness and amount of material leads to strange images….
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Come join us! http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov