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The Cassini-Huygens Space Mission

Encyclopedia of Astrobiology

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Synonyms

Cassini mission; Cassini spacecraft; Huygens probe

Definition

Cassini-Huygens is a large NASA-ESA-ASI mission, composed of the Saturn orbiter (Cassini) and the Titan lander (Huygens). Cassini-Huygens reached Saturn in 2004 after a trip that lasted about 7.5 years and has since then been investigating the Saturnian environment, carrying out the first detailed survey of the planet, its rings, and the 62 currently known satellites, with a focus on Titan. The Cassini instruments have returned a great amount of data that have revolutionized our view of the Saturnian system. The orbiter is foreseen to remain operational until 2017.

History

An ambitious and international mission to explore the Saturnian system was initially proposed to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1982 by a team of European and US scientists. After extensive discussions between ESA and NASA, the initial concepts eventually evolved by 1989 into...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire d’Etudes Spatiales et d’Instrumentation en Astrophysique (LESIA), Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris-Diderot, 5, place Jules Janssen, 92195, Meudon Cedex, France

    Athena Coustenis

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  1. Athena Coustenis
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Correspondence to Athena Coustenis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de BiologĂ­a Molecular, Universidad AutĂłnoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Amils

  2. Labo. d'Astrophysique de Bordeaux (LAB), Observatoire Aquitain des Sciences de l'Univers (OASU), Floirac CX, France

    Muriel Gargaud

  3. Centro de AstrobiologĂ­a (CAB), Inst. Nacional de TĂ©cnica Aeroespacial, TorrejĂłn de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain

    José Cernicharo Quintanilla

  4. Geophysical Lab., Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

    Henderson James Cleaves

  5. Astronomy Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA

    William M. Irvine

  6. Dépt. Sc. de la Terre et de l’Atmosphère, Université du Québec, Montréal, Montreal, Québec, Canada

    Daniele Pinti

  7. Centre National d'Etudes Spatiale (CNES) DPI/E2U, Paris CX, France

    Michel Viso

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Coustenis, A. (2014). The Cassini-Huygens Space Mission. In: Amils, R., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_241-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_241-4

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27833-4

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Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Cassini-Huygens Space Mission
    Published:
    29 May 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_241-6

  2. The Cassini-Huygens Space Mission
    Published:
    09 February 2021

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_241-5

  3. Original

    The Cassini-Huygens Space Mission
    Published:
    07 May 2015

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27833-4_241-4

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