Skip to footer

Saturn-orbiting spacecraft to go out with a bang, says NASA

For its "grand finale," the Cassini space probe will orbit between Saturn and its innermost ring, before plunging itself into the gas giant's atmosphere.

|
NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's Cassini spacecraft will zip between Saturn and the planet's innermost set of rings repeatedly during the final phase of the probe's mission in 2016-2017.

NASA has chosen a name for the dramatic final phase of its Saturn-studying Cassini mission, with a little help from the public.

Starting in late 2016, Cassini will zip between Saturn and its innermost ring a total of 22 times in a mission phase now known as the "Cassini Grand Finale," which will end in September 2017 when the probe intentionally dives into the gas giant's atmosphere.

The spacecraft's handlers had been calling this upcoming period "the proximal orbits" because Cassini will be so close to the planet, but they felt this apellation lacked pizzazz. So in April, they asked the public to vote for names provided by mission team members or suggest monikers of their own.

More than 2,000 people took part, NASA officials said. The team took the public's input into account, then decided to go with the "Cassini Grand Finale."

"We chose a name for this mission phase that would reflect the exciting journey ahead while acknowledging that it's a big finish for what has been a truly great show," Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

Cassini launched toward Saturn in October 1997 and arrived in orbit around the ringed planet 10 years ago yesterday (June 30). The $3.2 billion mission — a collaboration involving NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency — also dropped a lander named Huygens onto Saturn's huge moon Titan in January 2005.

Cassini has made a number of important discoveries during its 10 years at Saturn. For example, the spacecraft detected plumes of water ice blasting from geysers at the south pole of the moon Enceladus, suggesting the Saturn satellite harbors an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy shell.

The Cassini Grand Finale should ensure the long-lived mission goes out with a bang, NASA officials say. During the 22 super-close orbits, the probe will map Saturn's gravity and magnetic fields in detail, assess how much material is in the planet's iconic rings and take up-close pictures of Saturn and the rings.

The mission team will ultimately steer Cassini into Saturn's atmosphere to ensure that the spacecraft doesn't crash into (and possibly contaminate) the moons Titan and Enceladus, which may host indigenous life of their own.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook orGoogle+. Originally published on Space.com.

Copyright 2014 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Saturn-orbiting spacecraft to go out with a bang, says NASA
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0701/Saturn-orbiting-spacecraft-to-go-out-with-a-bang-says-NASA
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe