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<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman">Nasa
Extends Cassini's Tour Of Saturn <BR><BR>NASA will extend the international
Cassini-Huygens <BR>mission to explore Saturn and its planets to 2017. The
agency's <BR>fiscal year 2011 budget provides a $60 million per year extension
for <BR>continued study of the ringed planet. <BR><BR>"This is a mission that
never stops providing us surprising scientific <BR>results and showing us eye
popping new vistas," said Jim Green, <BR>director of NASA's planetary science
division"</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT face="Times New Roman">The
historic traveller's stunning discoveries and images <BR>have revolutionized our
knowledge of Saturn and its moons." <BR><BR>Cassini launched in October 1997
with the European Space Agency's <BR>Huygens probe. The spacecraft arrived at
Saturn in 2004. The probe <BR>was equipped with six instruments to study Titan,
Saturn's largest <BR>moon. Cassini's 12 instruments have returned a daily stream
of data <BR>from Saturn's system for nearly six years. The project was scheduled
<BR>to end in 2008, but the mission received a 27-month extension to <BR>Sept.
2010. <BR><BR>"The extension presents a unique opportunity to follow seasonal
<BR>changes of an outer planet system all the way from its winter to its
<BR>summer," said Bob Pappalardo, Cassini project scientist</FONT></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT
face="Times New Roman">"Some of Cassini's most exciting discoveries still lie
ahead." <BR><BR>This second extension, called the Cassini Solstice Mission,
enables <BR>scientists to study seasonal and other long-term weather changes on
<BR>the planet and its moons. Cassini arrived just after Saturn's <BR>northern
winter solstice, and this extension continues until a few <BR>months past
northern summer solstice in May 2017. The northern summer <BR>solstice marks the
beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and <BR>winter in the southern
hemisphere. <BR><BR>A complete seasonal period on Saturn has never been studied
at this <BR>level of detail. The Solstice mission schedule calls for an
<BR>additional 155 orbits around the planet, 54 flybys of Titan and 11
<BR>flybys of the icy moon Enceladus. <BR><BR>The mission extension also will
allow scientists to continue <BR>observations of Saturn's rings and the magnetic
bubble around the <BR>planet known as the magnetosphere. The spacecraft will
make repeated <BR>dives between Saturn and its rings to obtain in depth
knowledge of <BR>the gas giant. During these dives, the spacecraft will study
the <BR>internal structure of Saturn, its magnetic fluctuations and ring
<BR>mass. <BR><BR>"The spacecraft is doing remarkably well, even as we endure
the <BR>expected effects of age after logging 2.6 billion miles on its
<BR>odometer," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager<BR>Cassini's travel
scrapbook includes more than 210,000 images; <BR>information gathered during
more than 125 revolutions around Saturn; <BR>67 flybys of Titan and eight close
flybys of Enceladus. Cassini has <BR>revealed unexpected details in the planet's
signature rings, and <BR>observations of Titan have given scientists a glimpse
of what Earth <BR>might have been like before life evolved. <BR><BR>Scientists
hope to learn answers to many questions that have developed <BR>during the
course of the mission, including why Saturn seems to have <BR>an inconsistent
rotation rate and how a probable subsurface ocean <BR>feeds the Enceladus' jets.
<BR><BR>The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the
<BR>European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the
<BR>project.</FONT></P></BODY></HTML>