Turning a midsummer night's dream into reality, NASA's Cassini spacecraft begins its new mission extension -- the Cassini Solstice Mission -- today. The mission extension will take Cassini a few months past Saturn's northern summer solstice (or midsummer) through September 2017. It will enable scientists to study seasonal changes and other long-term weather changes on Saturn and its moons.
Cassini had arrived just after Saturn's northern winter solstice in 2004, and the extension continues a few months past the northern summer solstice in May 2017. A complete seasonal period on Saturn has never been studied at this level of detail.
Cassini has revealed a bounty of scientific discoveries since its launch in 1997, including previously unknown characteristics of the Earth-like world of Saturn's moon Titan, and the plume of water vapor and organic particles spewing from another moon, Enceladus.
The Cassini Solstice Mission will enable continued study of these intriguing worlds. It will also allow scientists to continue observations of Saturn's rings and the magnetic bubble around the planet, known as the magnetosphere. Near the end of the mission, the spacecraft will make repeated dives between Saturn and its rings to obtain in-depth knowledge of the gas giant. During these dives, the spacecraft will study the internal structure of Saturn, its magnetic fluctuations and ring mass.
Cassini entered orbit around Saturn in 2004. Mission managers had originally planned for a four-year tour of the Saturnian system. In 2008, Cassini received a mission extension through September 2010 to probe the planet and its moons through equinox, when the sun was directly over the equator. Equinox, which occurred in August 2009, marked the turn from southern fall to northern spring. The second mission extension, called the Cassini Solstice Mission, was announced earlier this year.
"After nearly seven years in transit and six years in Saturn orbit, this spacecraft still just hums along," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "With seven more years to go, the science should be just as exciting as what we've seen so far."
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.
Meanwhile the World looks to elsewhere... Giant HORNETS are threatening to all Humankind...it is necessary that the human beings, instead of destroy among them, destroy to those dangerous insects of huge exponential growing...seriously beginning already, at present.
...space-elevator (orbital station bike wheel-1g)... geostationary orbit, a huge "bike-wheel" is gyrating around its own axis for have 1g-centrifugal. Wheel held in place with 4 CABLES (each cable with a track for Train, for both trains crossing ↓↑) FORMING THE STRUCTURE OF A RHOMBUS♦ (minor diagonal of rhombus is the gyration-axis of the Station-Wheel)...rhombus´s below, the carbon nanotube´s Track towards Earth...rhombus´s abobe, the Cable towards a higher counterweight... if... WHEEL´s RADIUS = 250 mts... Wheel gyration´s Axis length = rhombus´s minor diagonal = Wheel´s radius = 250 mts... Cable´s length of the rhombus´s side = Wheel diameter = 500 mts. Wheel´s ZONE 1g: habitable length = 1571 mts*50 mts wide*50 mts height, gyrating 360º each 31 seconds, angular-speed = 11.61º/sec, linear-speed (tangential) = 182 kms/h... Station-Wheel´s GYRATION: AXIS IN PERPENDICULAR (90º) ORIENTATION TO THE ORBITAL TRAJECTORY...and so, while Station-Wheel follows its geostationary orbit, the Wheel does Not changes the spatial-orientation of its axis, and thus there are Not Precession forces actuating (and thus there is Not torsion´s force against Track)... Wheel with maneuver´s tangential-rockets for gyration´s start, or...gyration emergency stop...and maneuver´s axial-rockets for reorientation of Wheel´s axis, if it is necessary: because the Earth´s axis slightly and very slowly goes oscillating cyclically due to nutation and precession...that oscillation evidently produces transversal traction pulling of the Track towards aside from its anchoring on equator, thus would have an also slight pendular movement side to side and it would produce precession´s movements of the Wheel´s axis and thus a not wished torsion of the Track...but the system must supporting lateral charges, in the same orbital plane and thus without precession´s problems on the Wheel´s axis, of acceleration against W→Track←E produced by the Coriolis effect when movement´s direction is perpendicular to the gyration´s axis, that lateral charge is maximum on equator (there, a vertical movement is perpendicular tø Earth´s axis) and zero on poles (there, a vertical movement is parallel tø Earth´s axis); upwards charge to West, downwards charge to East; the gyroscopic-rigidity contributes for maintaining the gyration-axis perpendicular to the orbital trajectory... When the Maglev Train slowly arrives (Train with an opened ╚╝ side in its technical maglev-zone all along over Track for can passing for both tracks: main-Track/rhombus-track/again main-track), using now cogwheels on Zipper-Track (zippers installed on the same Maglev-Track), Train stops in Geo 0g-Station placed over one extreme of the gyration-axis... Passengers disembark and entering into gyratory circular corridor, they take now the interior-elevator of one of the Wheel´s hollow-radius (also could be an exterior-elevator running for a simple maglev-radius), and tunnel "descending" till Hotel into the final Zone-1g...where while Station-Wheel goes turning, the immense O2 producer Hydroponics Garden receives a filtered Sun light...and there are Earth´s awesome views.
☼↓↓▓0.08g▬▬▬←▬▬▬▬▬↓☺▬▬♦1g▬→▬▬1g...Space-elevator (orbital station ramp)... Faraway hight beyond Earth surface at 150,000 kms...fast orbital speed 11.4 kms/sec...with only 0.08g centrifugal, 0.8 mts/sec²...could be, if someday is cheap the maglev-track, the counterweight Terminal Orbital Station-Ramp... Awaits passengers in Earth-Station a hyperspeed vertical electric Train of Magnetic Levitation... "Spatial Train coming from Orbital Station-Ramp and Orbital Station-Wheel at these moments arriving will depart again after one hour, passengers with Moon destination please embark on SHIP-COACH when will be hooked at Train´s end"...medium-speed = 5,000 kms/hour... 7 hours: Train is on rhombus inclined track at zero-speed, near from Water-Recycling Plant with carbon nanotube´s filters...and the other Air-Filtering Plant with catalysts...the passengers disembark in weightlessnes: Geo 0g-Station, next to «Port for Spacecrafts»... Tour continuing again... THE TRAIN DEPARTS►... km 50,630: braking...Moon-Launching-Point, Train is at zero-speed, rear SHIP-COACH is released staying alone, again... THE TRAIN DEPARTS►... (((SHIP-COACH while Earth turns, awaits patient the hour for releasing from Track and going to Moon with exact heading...now...takeoff and goes transferring orbits till Moon orbit where firing rocket again, brakes and lands on Moon☺Station...and once recharged with fuel and passengers...equal than aircraft carrier, from a Launching-Catapult... SHIP-COACH TAKEOFF►... and returns conventionally again to geostationary orbit next to Orbital Station Bike-Wheel´s Geo-0g-Station and tying up on its «Port for Spacecrafts»...when any Train returns, stops and SHIP-COACH is hooked again at Train´s end returning to Earth)))... 23 hours: Train is horizontal on Terminal at zero-speed, near from Ship´s Launching Ramp towards Jupiter/interstellar Space, in spectacular and covered by transparent graphene´s domes with Earth views always in the ceiling, the pasengers disembark at destination: counterweight centrifuge Ramp 0.08g-Station... On Track, besides, there are 3 (one at down in Earth-Station, one at middle in Rhombus-structure, and one at top in Ramp-Station) special powerful automatic maglev-vehicles which, in case of emergency, would go out to Train´s encounter and equaling speed between both: soft contact and braking and both stopping... On Train, besides, 2 gigantic and folded in little compartments resistant graphene´s parachutes with a rigid central-ring for Track passing through: one parachute at Train´s front only for emergency when Train goes climbing, and so it could return "softly" to ground... And other parachute at Train´s rear with a sophisticated system also maglev of rigid central-ring for Track passing parachute´s through without hitching... On come back, at 9,000 kms height (exosphere) maglev central-ring is launched and pulling extracts and, when according it descends goes sufficiently increasing for it the Atmosphere´s density, deploys its parachute probably below 100 kms height from Earth surface...when Train comes hyper-speedy and maglev-braking falling towards Earth, for avoid now already Gravity´s acceleration...aero-braked regulating with a major or minor Distance between Train and canopy´s rigid-central-ring of the parachute: max Distance, chute totally deployed max braking...less Distance, chute partially deployed less braking. System of rear parachute which normally before touch ground is automatically refolded (bringing again the canopy´s central-ring into its Train´s compartment and coiling the canopy and its fine cords around motorized gyratory cylinders)... Train enters on terminal horizontal-track and stops in Earth-Station.
(2)...space-elevator (orbital station bike wheel-1g)...if...WHEEL´s RADIUS = 250 mts... Wheel gyration´s Axis length = rhombus´s minor diagonal = ¼ Wheel´s radius = 62.5 mts (axis could be a resistant hollow tube with for example 5 mts in diameter with adequate wall´s thickness, hollow which could serving how tank of anything, e.g. air, or tank of frozen water storage no totally full, for volume expansion from liquid to ice without tank, Axis, breaking, thawing using solar-heat)... Cable´s length of the rhombus´s side = Wheel diameter = 500 mts. Wheel´s ZONE-1g: habitable length = 1571 mts*50 mts wide (separation at both sides between Cable and Circumference of the gyratory Wheel, approx.= 5 mts, adjusting this separation installing an Axis with major or minor length, as much as shorter Axis...stronger and an angle nearer to 180º value, for easy train´s passing, in both rhombus´s vertex where are the big soundless-♫-bearings of Axis´s-insertion. With a sufficient cables tension coming from the counterweight, if Axis resists: the rhombus structure is undeformable)*10 Floors with 25 mts in height each one, gyrating 360º each 31 seconds...a person with 80 kgs mass, would have in each Floor a centrifugal force:... Floor 1: 1.04g=84 kgs... Floor 2: 0.94g=75 kgs... Floor 3: 0.84g=67 kgs... Floor 4: 0.73g=59 kgs... Floor 5: 0.63g=50 kgs... Floor 6: 0.52g=42 kgs... Floor 7: 0.42g=34 kgs... Floor 8: 0.31g=25 kgs... Floor 9: 0.21g=17 kgs... Floor 10: 0.1g=8.4 kgs...it gyrating into 4 cables, each cable with a track for Train, a rhombus structure forming for Wheel´s supporting...