Next year will be very much about Saturn. Early in the year, the Cassini spacecraft will come very close to the planet's rings, transmitting unprecedented views of the breathtaking system.
However, on September 15, the joy will turn into sadness. At 1207 UTC the spacecraft will plunge into the planet and burn up in its thick atmosphere. This is going to be the end of one of the most successful space missions ever. The Cassini spacecraft, a US-European mission, was launched in 1997.
Sentinel-3A (Eumetsat)
A guardian in our orbit
In February a rocket took Earth observation satellite Sentinel-3A into space. The task of the satellite is to guard our planet: It looks at changes in the environment and sends data back to Earth. And here is something that come with it: beautiful pictures. Here is Corsica, Elba and the Italian coast.
In 2004 Cassini entered Saturn's orbit. It has radioed a plethora of scientific data and beautiful pictures back to Earth. In September, Cassini will have spent more than 13 years in Saturn's orbit - much longer than previously anticipated.
Death of last 'dinosaur'
The first concepts of the Cassini mission were drawn in the 1970s. Back then NASA has planned multi-billion-dollar missions with sophisticated instrumentation and ambitious scientific goals. Cassini belongs to this class, as well as the Voyager spacecrafts exploring the outer planets, and Galileo, an earlier Cassini-type mission. Cassini's probe is still working perfectly, with only very few technical issues during the mission.
The camera will take unique pictures showing the wonders of the rings in exquisite detail. Other instruments collect particles and icy dust grains and analyze them on board.
Getting so close to the rings, is always a bit risky. But the flight team is optimistic that Cassini is not going to be hit by larger particles. In mid-September, Cassini's signal will disappear. The moment the contact is lost for ever will be very emotional for the scientists.
Enceladus Saturn moon
Scientists want to be sure that Cassini doesn't lose power and hit a moon like Enceladus, where it could do harm
Cosmic environmental protection
There is hardly any fuel left to navigate the spacecraft properly. That's why NASA has chosen to send the spacecraft into Saturn. The spacecraft would get out of control in the near future, facing the risk to hit one of Saturn's moons accidentally. That's the worst case scenario. The largest moon of Saturn, Titan, surpassing even the planet Mercury, is an amazing place with a thick atmosphere, resembling Earth's atmosphere three billion years ago.
Enceladus, a moon about 500 kilometres in diameter, has a deep water ocean beneath its icy surface, as Cassini's data suggest. This water may harbour primitive forms of life. The scientists have to avoid that Cassini crashes on the surface of those moons and spoils them with germs from Earth that might have survived the cosmic trip inside the spacecraft.
