Passage to a Ringed World - NASA's History Office

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Developments tied to the Cassini–Huygens mission have had an effect on everyday life. The solid-state recorder, using silicon chips to store data, has found application on other spacecraft and in whole industries, from aerospace to entertainment. Powerful computer chips and a radio transponder from the mission are being used in other spacecraft, providing better performance and lowering overall cost. Solid-state power switches developed for the mission can be used in electrical and electronic products for both industry and consumers. A new resource-trading exchange permits subsystems on the Cassini– Huygens spacecraft to help balance conflicting needs. It delegates any decisions to those who understand the problem best, so better decisions result. Already, this system has been used by California’s South Coast Air Quality Management District to help regulate air pollution; the state of Illinois is adapting it to manage volatile organic wastes. The Cassini Management Information System tracks a myriad of receivables and deliverables by establishing “contracts” among those involved. Critical steps and objects are easier to identify — and problems can be identified earlier, so they can be addressed more easily and with less expense. The Cassini–Huygens mission involves hundreds of scientists, engineers and technicians from 17 countries. Learning to cooperate and work together toward a common goal is good practice, for technicians as well as governments. International cooperation distributes the expense among the partner nations and gives them all the opportunity to participate in the adventure and the science. More people with different backgrounds than ever before will share in the direct and derived benefits from this mission. Space exploration inspires us to look beyond our everyday existence and to the greater universe. We come into this world as explorers, engineers and scientists, learning initially by taste and feel and going on, first crawling, then walking, then running — as the preceding generations try to keep up! — to see and experience the world around us. Exploration is instinctive in us; the Cassini–Huygens mission is another way for us to extend our senses physically to new places and over a broader range of phenomena. Beautiful Saturn, with its rings, its moons and its many other wonders, beckons to us to explore and uncover its secrets, to partake in the thrill of discovery. Cassini–Huygens is the vehicle. A F T E R W O R D 133
APPENDIX A A Accrete. Gravitationally accumulate mass; the process by which planets form. Aeronomy. The science of the physics of upper atmospheres. Aerosols. Large molecules or particulates that remain suspended in air over long periods of time. Albedo. The fraction of incident radiation reflected by a planet or satellite. If the value is integrated over all wavelengths, it is called the bolometric albedo. If the value is integrated over all directions, it is called the Bond albedo. The geometric albedo is the ratio of the brightness at a phase angle of zero degrees (full illumination) compared with a diffuse, perfectly reflecting disk of the same size. Apparition. The duration of visibility of a planet during any given year. Very Large Array, Socorro, New Mexico Glossary of Terms Apoapsis. The farthest point in an orbit from the body being orbited. Arrayed antennas. Ground antennas made to work together in order to enhance the telemetry capability. Astronomical unit (AU). The mean distance from the Sun to Earth — 149,597,870.694 kilometers. Aureole. A luminous area surrounding the Sun or other bright light when seen through a thin atmosphere. Bit error. A loss of information that occurs as a result of the change in value (1 to 0, or 0 to 1) of a single bit by some chance effect. B Black hole. An object whose gravita- tional field is so strong that even light cannot escape from it. Bow shock. A standing shock wave that forms upstream of a planet. The bow shock forms because the planet’s magnetic field creates an obstacle to the incoming solar wind flow. The bow shock heats the solar wind and slows it to subsonic speeds so that it can flow around the planet’s magnetosphere. C Carbonaceous (C-type) material. Carbon silicate primordial material rich in simple organic compounds. C-type material is spectrally flat and exists on the surfaces of several outer planet satellites and C-type asteroids. Carrier. The main component of a radio signal generated by a transmitter. Central Data Base. A database ad- ministered by the Cassini Program that stores relevant project-specific data such as sequence files and ancillary data. Clathrate. A chemical compound con- sisting of a lattice molecule and inclusions of a smaller molecule within the crystal lattice; ice or other substance that traps molecules in its crystal structure without chemical bonding. GLOSSARY OF TERMS 135
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Passage to a Ringed World The Cassi
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On the Cover: A collage of images s
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FOREWORD This book is for you. You
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book would not
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Three separate images, taken by Voy
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descent to the surface. The Huygens
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address the challenges of the missi
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Participant Nations* * First flag i
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PROBING A MOON OF MYSTERY Huygens
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TOUR T18-3 TARGETED SATELLITE FLYBY
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SATURN CASSINI-HUYGENS MISSION SCIE
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Cassini-Huygens designed to determi
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In this diagram from his book, Syst
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This Voyager 1 image shows Saturn
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An Extended Atmosphere From Liquid
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Haze layers are also observed above
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IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Taken fr
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This spectacular view of the edge o
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the interaction was described as a
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have a signature of a tone decreasi
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CONSTITUENTS OF THE TITAN ATMOSPHER
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The processes of plate tectonics an
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tan was accreting, it is possible t
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Surface Science. The highest resolu
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This enhanced Voyager 2 image shows
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Voyager 1 captured this striking im
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Prometheus and Pandora, two tiny sa
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In the stellar occultation experime
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scattering than are larger particle
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In fact, Saturn’s rings — as we
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The satellites of Saturn comprise a
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Before the advent of spacecraft exp
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The bright surface of Saturn’s mo
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Galilean satellites. Most of what i
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duced that one hemisphere is compos
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patches on the surface. Although it
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Artist’s conception of Ithaca Cha
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An artist’s rendition of Saturn
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The MAPS Instruments Coordinated ob
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field reverses direction across the
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SATURN’S MAGNETIC FIELD Saturn’
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Solar Wind Magnetosheath Titan neut
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per atmosphere. Energetic particles
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and plasma wave emissions from narr
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CHAPTER 7 Space mission design aims
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Page 140 and 141: AFTERWORD It has been said that in
Page 144 and 145: APPENDIX A Command. A data transact
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Page 148 and 149: APPENDIX A Plasma wave. A wave char
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Page 164 and 165: APPENDIX F Peralta, F. and S. Flana
Page 168: National Aeronautics and Space Admi
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