Cassini-Huygens Mission

Pramit Ghosh
Mechanical Enineering, BUET

INTRODUCTION IMAGE AND FUNCTIONS DO ALIENS EXIST?

Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, has an ocean underneath the
“Cassini-Huygens Mission” is one of the greatest space science missions icelayer which can be a potential source of energy, organic molecules.
those were ever attempted by NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Unfortunately, Cassini wasn’t endowed with life detection instruments.
Administration). It was a joint effort by NASA, ESA (European Space Interestingly, the methane lakes of Titan are believed to be the sign
Agency) and ASI (Italian Space Agency) which was launched to analyze of preceding period of organic life.
the Saturn, its ring and its moons. Cassini-Huygens was consisted of
“Cassini Space Probe” from NASA which entered into the orbit of Saturn
and “Huygens Lander” from ESA which landed on Titan. This mission is
named after two astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.

BRIEF TIMELINE

“Cassini-Huygens Probe” was launched on 15th October, 1997 and

Cassini entered into the orbit of Saturn on 1st July, 2004. Cassini
was active for about 20 years on space and spent around 13 years in Fig: Partial cross section Enceladus
the orbit of Saturn. On the other hand, Huygens traveled with
Cassini from launching and split from Cassini on 14th January, Does Extraterrestrial life exist in Enceladus?
2005. Then Huygens reached the surface of Titan’s. This was the first Only future mission can ensure.
landing on a moon other than the moon of earth itself. For around 90
minutes, Huygens was able to send data to earth. This mission had
come to an end on 15th September, 2017 by the destruction of Cassini. KEY FINDINGS MYSTERIOUS HEXAGON

INFORMATIONS ABOUT THE MISSION 6 moons of Saturn were discovered by Cassini

Mission duration Speed: 44.0 kilometers per second Methane flowing lakes were discovered on According to Cassini, hurricane on
Overall: Cost: about $3.26 billion Titan Saturn is about 50 times bigger than
19 years, 335 days Rocket: Titan IV(401)B B-33 “Great White Spot” was observed on Saturn that of earth.
13 years, 76 days at Saturn Manufacturers: Jet Propulsion
En route: Laboratory (Cassini), Hurricanes and color changing “hexagon” Fig: Hurricane of Saturn
6 years, 261 days Thales Alenia Space (Huygens) around it were discovered Fig: Some discovered moons by Cassini
Prime mission: Power: ~885 watts (BOL);
3 years ~670 watts (2010); An ocean underneath the ice layer of
Extended missions: ~663 watts (EOM/2017) Enceladus was discovered by Cassini Surprisingly, it is surrounded
Equinox: 2 years, 62 days by six-sided jet stream which is
Solstice: 6 years, 205 days A formation of new moon from the ring of known as “The hexagon”. This
Finale: 4 months, 24 days Saturn was observed by the photographs hexagon changes its color with
Launch mass: 5,712 kg provided by Cassini time. Interestingly, different colors
Dry mass: 2,523 kg are observed on different seasons.
Fig: Hydrocarbon lake of Titan (Artistic view)
Fig: Change of color of Hexagon over the time