Douglas Isbell/Donald Savage

Headquarters, Washington, DC September 3, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Franklin O'Donnell/Mary Beth Murrill

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE: 97-190

CASSINI TO SURVEY WORLDS OF SATURN AND TITAN;

SENDS FIRST PROBE TO MOON OF ANOTHER PLANET

The planet Saturn, its famous icy rings, and its enigmatic
moon, Titan, are the prime scientific targets of the international
Cassini mission, the most ambitious and far-reaching planetary
exploration ever mounted. Final preparation of Cassini is now
underway for a launch from Cape Canaveral, FL, in October 1997.

The mission marks the first time a space probe has attempted
to land on the moon of another planet, providing the first direct
sampling of the Earth-like atmosphere of Titan and the first
detailed pictures of its previously hidden surface. Titan is
Saturn's largest moon, nearly the size of Mars and bigger than
either Mercury or Pluto.

Cassini, in development since October 1989, is a cooperative

endeavor of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian
Space Agency, or Agenzia Spaziale Italiana. The mission will send
a sophisticated robotic spacecraft equipped with 12 scientific
experiments to orbit Saturn for a four-year period and study the
Saturnian system in detail. The ESA-built Huygens probe that will
parachute into Titan's thick atmosphere carries another six
scientific instrument packages.

"With its bright, complex rings, 18 known moons and magnetic

environment, Saturn is a lot like a solar system in miniature
form," said Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, NASA's associate administrator
for space science. "Saturn�s family of rings and moons is a one-
stop treasure trove, offering countless clues to the history of
planetary and solar system evolution. Cassini and the Huygens
probe represent our best efforts yet in our ongoing exploration of
the solar system."

The launch period for Cassini's nearly seven-year journey to

Saturn opens on
Oct. 6 at 5:39 a.m. EDT and closes Nov. 15, 1997. A U.S. Air
Force Titan IVB/Centaur launch system, the most powerful launch
vehicle in the U.S. fleet, will loft Cassini onto the
interplanetary trajectory that will deliver the spacecraft to
Saturn almost seven years later on July 1, 2004. Cassini's
primary mission concludes in July 2008.

Saturn is the second-largest planet in the solar system and

is made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. Its placid-looking,
butterscotch-colored face masks a windswept atmosphere where jet
streams blow at 1,100 miles per hour and swirling storms roil just
beneath the cloud tops. Spacecraft passing by Saturn found a huge
and complex magnetic environment, called a magnetosphere, where
trapped protons and electrons interact with each other, the
planet, rings, and surfaces of many of the moons.

Saturn's best known feature -- its bright rings -- consists

not just of a few rings but of hundreds of rings and ringlets
broad and thin, composed of ice and rock particles ranging in size
from grains of sand to boxcars. "Shepherd moons" found orbiting
near the edges of some of the rings gravitationally herd in ring
particles that would otherwise spread out into deep space.

Although it is believed to be too cold to support life, haze-

covered Titan is thought to hold clues to how the primitive Earth
evolved into a life-bearing planet. It has an Earth-like,
nitrogen-based atmosphere and a surface that many scientists
believe probably features chilled lakes of ethane and methane.
Scientists believe that Titan's surface is probably coated with
the residue of a sticky brown organic rain.

On Nov. 6, 2005, Huygens will descend by parachute into

Titan's sky, providing our first direct sampling of Titan's
atmosphere and the first detailed photos of its hidden surface.

The Cassini spacecraft is the most complex interplanetary

spacecraft ever built. Because of Cassini's challenging mission,
the long distance Cassini must travel, and the value of its
scientific return, each component and the system as a whole has
undergone an unprecedented program of rigorous testing for quality
and performance.

"Every phase of the mission has been reviewed and validated

internally and externally by NASA and independent experts," said
Huntress.

Because of the very dim sunlight at Saturn's orbit, Cassini

could not conduct its mission to Saturn on solar power.
Electrical power is supplied to Cassini by a set of radioisotope
thermoelectric generators (RTGs) which convert the heat from the
natural decay of plutonium. RTGs have been used on 23 previous
U.S. missions. Plutonium dioxide also is used in 117 radioisotope
heater units placed on Cassini and Huygens to keep electronics
systems at their operating temperatures. These units were most
recently used on the Mars Pathfinder mission's Sojourner rover to
keep the system from failing during cold Martian nights.

The mission is named for two 17th century astronomers:

Italian-French astronomer Jean-Dominique Cassini made several key
discoveries about Saturn, and Dutch scientist Christian Huygens
discovered Titan.

Development of the Huygens probe was managed by an ESA team

located at the European Space Technology and Research Center
(ESTEC) in Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The Cassini orbiter was
designed, developed and assembled at NASA�s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (JPL), located in Pasadena, CA. JPL is a division of
the California Institute of Technology. The overall mission is
managed by JPL for NASA�s Office of Space Science, Washington, DC.
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