Saturday, November 06, 2004

Cassini and Saturn

Have you been viewing the pictures beamed back from the spacecraft Cassini-Huygens orbiting Saturn? They are amazing! Cassini just made the closest approach to Saturn's moon Titan ever, measuring all aspects of planet-like sphere using a multitude of instruments. Later this year, the craft will send the Huygens probe into the atmosphere of Titan. Hopefully it won't crash like the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander did. Speaking of Mars, the two Mars Exploration Rovers are still alive, roaming on the surface taking pictures and sampling the soil. This is an amazing feat, and most people forgot about this exceedingly successful mission months ago. The rovers have lasted three times longer than they were designed for. I have been interested in space and astronomy since I was a kid and hope NASA/JPL's budget doesn't get cut much more.

1 comment:

Karen said...

I have no clue what's going on in space right now but the night skies in Central America are clear and you can see the stars. I'm glad the Mars rovers are still out there and sending back info!