The Cassini–Huygens space-research mission, commonly called Cassini, involved a collaboration among NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the Saturn planet and its system, including its rings and natural satellites. The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini space probe and ESA's Huygens lander, which landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit. The two craft took their names from the astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.
Launched aboard a Titan IVB/Centaur on October 15, 1997, Cassini was active in space for nearly 20 years, with 13 years spent orbiting Saturn and studying the planet and its system after entering orbit on July 1, 2004. The voyage to Saturn included flybys of Venus (April 1998 and July 1999), Earth (August 1999), the asteroid 2685 Masursky, and Jupiter (December 2000). The mission ended on September 15, 2017, when Cassini's trajectory took it into Saturn's upper atmosphere and it burned up in order to prevent any risk of contaminating Saturn's moons, which might have offered habitable environments to stowaway terrestrial microbes on the spacecraft. The mission was successful beyond expectations – NASA's Planetary Science Division Director, Jim Green, described Cassini-Huygens as a "mission of firsts" that has revolutionized human understanding of the Saturn system, including its moons and rings, and our understanding of where life might be found in the Solar System.
Cassini's planners originally scheduled a mission of four years, from June 2004 to May 2008. The mission was extended for another two years until September 2010, branded the Cassini Equinox Mission. The mission was extended a second and final time with the Cassini Solstice Mission, lasting another seven years until September 15, 2017, on which date Cassini was de-orbited to burn up in Saturn's upper atmosphere.
The Huygens module traveled with Cassini until its separation from the probe on December 25, 2004; Huygens landed by parachute on Titan on January 14, 2005. It returned data to Earth for around 90 minutes, using the orbiter as a relay. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System and the first landing on a moon other than Earth's Moon.
At the end of its mission, the Cassini spacecraft executed its "Grand Finale": a number of risky passes through the gaps between Saturn and Saturn's inner rings. This phase aimed to maximize Cassini's scientific outcome before the spacecraft was intentionally destroyed. The atmospheric entry of Cassini ended the mission, but analysis of the returned data will continue for many years.
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I always liked this space probe mission :comfy:
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Hey everyone, due to circumstances I'm posting this one, too. Hope that's cool :comfy:
Uh, I mean, uh, you're all nerds?
SSPPPPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :lets-fucking-go:
The collapse of the Soviet Union has been a disaster for space exploration
For real. We've got billionaires pretending to be astronauts now:kombucha-disgust:
my dad just went on a whole ass 2 minute :frothingfash: absolute meltdown about race mixing because an ad for the supermarket asda had a black man and a white woman with mixed kids
make post on website
get absolutely trashed by tankies
go to the anarchist comm to complain
get trashed there as well
This is the greatest website on earth. :mao-shining: :left-unity-2: :kropotkin-shining:
Guy who's sole political belief is that mosquitoes should be gotten rid of somehow
The key to getting enough sleep is to wake up 15 minutes before u have to leave for work so u have no breakfast, shower, makeup, and ur hair looks like shit. This is good healthy habits.
Weird thing I have to try and remind myself sometimes: I’m pretty hot.
Like, I still have the thought in my mind from when I was in like middle school that most people assume I’m a weird autistic nerd from the moment they see me. But they don’t assume that anymore, I’m honestly pretty attractive. I’m tall, in good enough shape, well groomed, well dressed, and as long as I stand up straight and talk confidently I’m pretty damn hot. Like, I was at a club the other night and 3 random girls at least seemed pretty happy that I started dancing with them.
Sorry to just brag for a second, my new antidepressants seem to be working and I’m feeling pretty good about myself rn and wanted to share
Hydro company shut the power off in my condo over 3 week late $80 bill that I forgot about.
:matt-jokerfied:
This is the moment I noticed I still had power to my exterior wall outlets. After a few minutes of of investigation I figured out I have no breaker to those outlets. ... the electrician who wired this shithole up must have wired them into the community power supply that runs into the room beside me.
Guess who is buying a couple of infrared heaters and is not going to get a $350 hydro bill every 2 months this winter ?
:michael-laugh:
Apparently there is a group called the “Cart-Narcs” that film and harass people who don’t put shopping carts back.
And like…I get how that can be annoying or inconsiderate or whatever.
But speaking as someone who used to have to put away carts…I don’t really care.
Like…I got to mess around outside without a supervisor breathing down my neck…it was practically a break.___I am in talks with the LitCritGuy from Horror Vanguard and frequent Rev Left Radio guest, for a Spooky-themed AMA. We need more happy emojis :crab-party: 😁
My student: "Schools are like prisons! What are we, prisoners??"
Me, internally: ":foucault-shining:"
Listening to my antivax co-workers talk about all the excuses they plan to marshal for refusing the shot it really strikes me anew of the innate narcissistic individualism of conspiracy theory. Never once brought up by any of them is some sense that they have a social responsibility to others to mitigate the spread of plague. Theyre only obsessed with how the secret arcane truths they possess about the real nature of the vaccine can protect their health by refusing it. Its bewildering hearing them act concerned about "all the people who've died from the vaccine" when there's a literal plague that has killed almost five million people still raging.
Neoliberal social engineering has not only rendered literally unthinkable the very idea of collective action, but also the notion of having a social responsibility toward anyone other than yourself. No wonder retail clerks are getting fucking shot for asking people to wear masks.
You're all beautiful people. Yeah I'm posting cringe, what are you gonna do about it dweeeeeeeeb?
Only coworkers my age talking about hustle grind culture and how important it is to work off hours unpaid to "advance your career". Miss me with that, I sacrifice enough of my waking hours to this place.