I used the Celestia program to fly along with Cassini in it's many orbits and close passes and was amazed that we could engineer such a thing. I wondered if it did like Voyager: arrive at the planet and hit its trajectory without any correction necessary. This mission, of course, is immensely more complex.
2007-08-26 11:38:46 · 3 answers · asked by Brant 7 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
From what I've read about probes like Cassini they must certainly contain a fair amount of fuel for course correction and probably far more than is necessary. Some space probes have far outlived their planned service life and a fuel contingency allowing for this only seems like common sense. One of the European probes was sent to one of the near Earth asteroids. Once the mission was in effect finished, there was sufficient fuel left on-board to maneuver the probe closer and closer to the asteroid and actually land on it although the probe was not designed to do so and the technicians were not even sure it could survive the touchdown.
2007-08-26 22:02:17 · answer #1 · answered by ericbryce2 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is a web site devoted exclusively to the imaging team of the cassini mission at www.ciclops.corg
I believe you can find links there which will get you to the engineering section of this mission.
Adolph
2007-08-27 04:47:01 · answer #2 · answered by Adolph K 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi. I do not know the actual amounts of fuel left or usage but found this interesting link while searching. http://www.unmannedspaceflight.com/index.php?showtopic=2306&st=0
2007-08-26 20:24:39 · answer #3 · answered by Cirric 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋