Cassini End of Mission
On the 15th of September, 2017, the Cassini spacecraft plunged into the atmosphere of the planet Saturn, bringing to an end a 13 year mission that has revolutionised our knowledge of this beautiful ringed world and its exotic moons.
Cassini-Huygens has a special significance for Europlanet in that the project was born out of the collaborations between European scientists involved in the mission.
Europlanet celebrated the end of this historic mission with the following:
Webinars: “Cassini-Huygens and The Lord of the Rings”. Dr Sheila Kanani of the Royal Astronomical Society joined us for a special webinar to celebrate the Cassini spacecraft’s amazing mission and some of the breathtaking discoveries it made, including a hexagonal storm that rages at Saturn’s north pole and an icy moon that could harbour life.
Saturn Live! Exploration of Saturn’s Icy Moons as Possible Habitats. Dr Athena Coustenis, Observatoire de Paris-Meudon, discussed the exploration of Saturn’s icy moons as possible habitats and European involvement in the Cassini mission.
Blog posts: Professor Nicholas Achilleos, of University College London (UCL) Physics & Astronomy, blogged about the Cassini mission end event at JPL, Cassini’s final days, and what working on the mission has meant to him professionally and personally.
Press Conference: The EPSC 2017 Press Briefing on the Cassini End of Mission included Nicolas Altobelli (Cassini-Huygens Project Scientist, ESA), Scott Edgington (Cassini Deputy Project Scientist, JPL) and Sascha Kempf (CDA Instrument Deputy Principal Investigator, University of Colorado Boulder).
Statement from Europlanet on the mission end: Europlanet’s statement highlighted the contribution of Cassini-Huygens to the European planetary science community.