Cassini spacecraft begins its final dance with Saturn
1,204 views · Published 11 April 2017 · 1:28 · Indexed 14 November 2026
Channel: Imperial College London · 2017 · Science & Technology
The Cassini mission, which has been orbiting Saturn for 13 years, will go closer to the planet than ever before this month in a daring series of dives. The spacecraft is running out of fuel, and will be driven into the atmosphere of Saturn and burnt up on the 15 September 2017. Before that, however, it will undertake its most dangerous manoeuvres yet – diving 22 times inside the planet’s rings. Professor Michele Dougherty, from the Department of Physics at Imperial, is in charge of one of the main instruments taking data in these final stages. She told us what Cassini will be doing, and why.
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