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Spirals of Cassini / Many Moons

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1.
2.
Many Moons 28:07

about

Spirals of Cassini

After Titan, 22 dives left among the planet and its rings.
Saturn:
The volume of Earth x764
The mass of Earth x95
1100mph wind
-288 F / -178 C

Running out of fuel after 20 years in space, Cassini took an extra 7 years to expend the last of its propellant on a final mission exploring Saturn before plunging into the atmosphere.
The last 22 orbits surfed on an elliptical path, diving at tens of thousands of miles per hour through the unexplored space between the rings and the planet.
When it was nearest to the planet, Cassini’s speed reached 78,00mph.
The Goodbye Kiss - September 11, 10:27 pm PDT - The spacecraft passed close enough to Saturn’s giant moon, Titan, that its gravity changed Cassini’s trajectory, ensuring the next transit through Saturn’s atmosphere would be its last.
Apoapse - September 14, 1:22 pm PDT - The spacecraft is at the point in its elliptical orbit that’s farthest from Saturn. It will never be this far from the planet again.
Final Downlink - September 14, 1:47 pm PDT - Cassini turns to Earth and transmits everything on its data recorders. The spacecraft holds this orientation - its antenna pointed towards Earth, for the remaining hours of the mission.
Powering up for the final plunge - September 15, 12:15 am PDT - After 20 years, the reaction wheels retire as Cassini switches to thrusters only in fighting against the push of Saturn’s atmosphere.
The Final Handoff - September 15, 12:15 am PDT - As the Earth rotates, stations in California and Australia begin downlinking the spacecraft’s data. After about 20 minutes, Earth’s rotation pulls Saturn out of view of the California antenna, and the Australia station alone receives Cassini’s signal.
Real-Time downlink is initiated - September 15, 3:30:50 am PDT - From here on, Cassini's purpose is to transmit every bit of data possible before the spacecraft is destroyed.
The deeper the spacecraft descends into Saturn’s atmosphere, the more precious the science data gets. Cassini won’t get a second chance to send this unique data to Earth.
Atmospheric entry begins - September 15, 3:31:48 am PDT - Cassini is traveling about 77,000 miles (123,000 kilometers) per hour as it enters Saturn's upper atmosphere. The attitude control thrusters fire at 10 percent of their capacity, and the spacecraft is approximately 1,200 miles (1,900 kilometers) above Saturn’s cloud tops.
Thrusters at maximum - September 15, 3:32:00 am PDT - The attitude control thrusters keeping the spacecraft's antenna pointed at Earth are firing at 100 percent of capacity. The spacecraft is directly sampling Saturn’s atmosphere from about 190 miles (300 kilometers) deeper into Saturn than on any of its previous orbits. The molecules in Saturn's atmosphere can't get out of Cassini's way fast enough, so their heat starts building up on the spacecraft's forward-facing surfaces. Cassini begins getting warmer.
Loss of Signal - At about 930 miles (1,500 kilometers) above the cloud tops, the attitude control thrusters fighting to keep Cassini stable can't win against the increasingly dense atmosphere. Cassini begins to slowly tumble, and permanently loses contact with Earth.
The last bits of Cassini's final signal won't reach Earth for nearly an hour and a half, due to the travel time for its radio signal at the speed of light. Technically, its mission is now at an end.

Mission engineers have used computer models to predict what will happen after loss of signal. Though they know what will ultimately become of the spacecraft, it’s difficult to be absolutely certain about the timing and chronology of some of the events. That said, here’s what they predict:
The spacecraft rams through Saturn’s atmosphere at four times the speed of a re-entry vehicle entering Earth’s atmosphere, and Cassini has no heat shield. So temperatures around the spacecraft will increase by 30-to-100 times per minute, and every component of the spacecraft will disintegrate over the next couple of minutes…
The spacecraft is now traveling about 77,200 miles (144,200 kilometers) per hour through Saturn’s upper atmosphere, about 700 miles (1,100 kilometers) above Saturn’s cloud tops. Under other circumstances, Cassini's gyroscopes, star trackers, and excessive thruster-firing would prompt the computers to begin a series of actions which would eventually lead to a precautionary standby mode known as “safe mode.”
Per its programming, the spacecraft's computers would typically command all science instruments and other non-essential systems to shut down so that all available power can focus on re-establishing communication with Earth. Cassini would then attempt to stop tumbling using its thrusters, find the Sun with its solar detectors, center its antenna on the Sun, use its star-trackers to tweak its orientation to point at Earth, and radio home. But by this time, the spacecraft’s computer will likely have overheated, causing it to fail.
Cassini’s gold-colored multi-layer insulation blankets will char and break apart, and then the spacecraft's carbon fiber epoxy structures, such as the 11-foot (3-meter) wide high-gain antenna and the 30-foot (11-meter) long magnetometer boom, will weaken and break apart. Components mounted on the outside of the central body of the spacecraft will then break apart, followed by the leading face of the spacecraft itself.
Temperatures around what remains of the spacecraft eventually exceed those on the surface of the Sun. Heating and expansion of gases inside the propellant tanks may cause them to explode. The tanks make up the spacecraft's central body, so their rupture would blast apart what's left of the spacecraft. The debris is then completely consumed in the planet's atmosphere. Cassini's materials will sink deep into Saturn and mix with the hot, high-pressure atmosphere of the giant planet to be completely diluted.
In Cassini’s final moments it returns data that will further unlock the mysteries of Saturn
Magnetic field measurements to better understand Saturn's rotation rate
Direct analysis of Saturn's atmospheric composition
Direct analysis of any dust particles in Saturn's atmosphere
Direct analysis of Saturn's ionosphere
Data from several instruments may reveal something completely unexpected
Cassini’s triumphant end is the culmination of a nearly 20-year mission that overflowed with discoveries
Discovery of seas and lakes of liquid methane and ethane on Titan's surface, which is the first observation of large bodies of surface liquid on any world other than Earth
Discovery (and direct sampling) of liquid water jets spraying from the south polar region of Saturn's moon Enceladus
Discovery of a global subsurface liquid water ocean below the ice shell of Enceladus that might be habitable to some form of life
First high-resolution images and up-close scientific analysis of most of Saturn's moons
First imaging of Saturn lightning on night side and day side
First visible-light imaging of Saturn's entire north polar jet stream known as "the hexagon"
Discovery of new moons, new rings and ringlets
Discovery of still-unexplained red streaks on Saturn's moon Tethys
Studying the rings at Saturn's equinox provided long shadows that revealed never-before-seen ring features
First image of Saturn's magnetosphere
Discovery that most of the ionized particles zipping around Saturn's magnetosphere came from Enceladus
Confirmation that the water jets of Enceladus are the primary source for material in Saturn's vast E ring
Solved mystery about why Saturn's moon Iapetus is black on one side and white on the other (the dark material comes from material blasted off another moon, Phoebe, by micro-meteorites)
And much much more.

credits

released May 5, 2020

all sounds created by Justin Alvarado and Ian Hansson near the end of 2019

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