Engineers Assessing Cassini Spacecraft

Engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., are working to understand what caused NASA's Cassini spacecraft to put itself into "safe mode," a precautionary standby mode. Cassini entered safe mode around 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EDT) on Tuesday, Nov. 2.

Since going into safe mode, the spacecraft has performed as expected, suspending the flow of science data and sending back only data about engineering and spacecraft health. Cassini is programmed to put itself into safe mode automatically any time it detects a condition on the spacecraft that requires action from mission controllers on the ground.

Engineers say it is not likely that Cassini will be able to resume full operations before a planned Nov. 11 flyby of Saturn's moon Titan. But Cassini has 53 more Titan flybys planned in its extended mission, which lasts until 2017.

"The spacecraft responded exactly as it should have, and I fully expect that we will get Cassini back up and running with no problems," said Bob Mitchell, Cassini program manager based at JPL. "Over the more than six years we have been at Saturn, this is only the second safing event. So considering the complexity of demands we have made on Cassini, the spacecraft has performed exceptionally well for us."

Since Cassini launched in 1997, Cassini has put itself into safe mode a total of six times.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington

Source: greys-area.blogspot.com

Methane Based Life On Titan

Methane-based lifeforms on SATURN'S moon TITAN? Two seperate papers coming out dealing with the research data from NASA'S CASSINI probe suggest this possibility.

The first paper that apears in the journal "ICARUS" shows that hydrogen gas in the TITAN atmosphere disappears at the surface. To scientists, this suggests that it is being breathed by alien bugs of some kind.

The second paper, appearing in the "JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH", states that there is the lack of a certin chemical (acetylene) on the surface. Another indicator for methane-base life. But scientists warn that there could be other explanations for these results as well.

For more details, check out the article below". Daily Mail. June 5, 2010. (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1284013/Do-aliens-live-Saturn-moon.html).

Winter X Games Wont Be Coming To Titan A Massive Cloud Swirling Vortex Of Gas Blankets South Pole

"THE Essay GALAXY: Titan is diverse in our solar system seeing that of its concrete nitrogen-methane concern, which is very firm to Earths in a number of ways, but very diverse in others. For pressing out, air temperatures are state 200 degrees colder and, in converse to the beautiful brackish water seas of Hideaway, cool hydrocarbon lakes folks Titans surface. Titan has seasons just ardor Hideaway, unaccompanied both get through lasts over seven soul instead of three months due to its solemn rule state the Sun. Whilst equinox in 2009, Titans south post entered the constant dimness of unfriendly winter. In a moment after, instruments on NASAs Cassini spacecraft observed the headway of a out of this world unfriendly cloud conceal over one million letter kilometres - dreadfully four become old the area of the UK. "THE CLOUD WAS FIRST SEEN IN IMAGES FROM CASSINIS CAMERAS TAKEN IN 2012," believed University of Bristol canvasser and co-author Dr Slice Teanby. "It started off comparatively modest but precisely grew to cover the undivided south unfriendly pamphlet. This was morally unprepared and set us puzzling over what the cloud may well be ended of. Discontentedly, for instance the images showed that the cloud was very high up, at over 250km supercilious the surface, they did not ban us to...