On Christmas Day 2004, a set of pyrotechnic devices fired, releasing three loaded springs that gently nudged the lander away from Cassini.Īs the little probe coasted away from its “mothership”, an anxious three-week wait began. With one mission milestone over, the next one was fast approaching: Cassini had to deliver the Huygens probe to Titan. Meticulous planning had paid off - with, perhaps, a little help from those peanuts. There was jubilation at mission control as team members high-fived and clapped. “Then Cassini came out and, sure enough, its path was right where it should have been.” “I remember being there with my family - my daughters, my husband, my mum, my sisters, they were all there watching. “That was a very tense moment, waiting for that signal while the burn happened when Cassini was behind the planet, so we didn't have a direct signal to the Earth,” Spilker recalls. The bosses sat at a table with a jar of lucky peanuts - a tradition at launches and major mission events since the 1950s.Īs Cassini travelled along its planned trajectory, the wait was nerve-jangling. While controllers monitored events at JPL, they were joined in the room by the centre's director Charles Elachi and Nasa's head of science Ed Weiler. “We had to complete a 96-minute engine burn, and we needed to complete at least 92 minutes of that or we risked flying by Saturn - just like the Voyagers,” explains Linda Spilker. The BBC has seen one of the letters, addressed by Luton to then vice president Al Gore. The momentum in the science community eventually led to a detente between Nasa and Esa.Īfter “Project Cassini” passed a detailed scientific assessment, Nasa and Esa gave the go-ahead to their respective parts of the mission and a unique international collaboration was inked.īut it was a bumpy ride to the launch pad.īudget cuts in the early 1990s forced the Cassini spacecraft to be re-designed, resulting in the removal of moving parts that would have swivelled instruments to look at their targets. ![]() “This is the advantage of being a European organisation, where 13 member states have 13 ambassadors in the United States, each of them putting pressure on one single government." The international dimension to the mission saved Cassini from the disaster of not being launched, says Dr Roger-Maurice Bonnet, science director at Esa from 1983 to 2001. Such an action would call into question the reliability of the US as a partner in any future major scientific and technological cooperation”. The BBC has seen one of the letters, addressed by Luton to then US vice president Al Gore.Įurope, it says, “views any prospect of a unilateral withdrawal from the cooperation on the part of the United States as totally unacceptable. Amid changing political winds, US Congress warned Nasa that its mission could be cancelled.Įsa’s director general Jean-Marie Luton protested in writing to senior US politicians, dangling the prospect of a new freeze in relations. However, the biggest threat to the Cassini-Huygens mission emerged in late 1993. You would have to turn the whole car to look at the animals, instead of just turning your head and snapping away. ![]() The result, says Cassini project manager Earl Maize, was like going on safari and bolting a camera to the hood of your off-road vehicle. Instead, the entire spacecraft would have to be turned during observations.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |