NASA has just free some of the tidbits of thefinal transmissionfrom Cassini and it appear that the spacecraft do exactly as wait until the very ending . The information that has been shared with the public focuses on the engineering side of thing , as the scientific discipline data point is still being analyze .
In the hour before atmospheric entry , Cassini was slowly rocking back and forth due to the subtle pull of Saturn ’s gravitational force essay to rotate it . But Cassini was n’t earmark to freely rotate . Its feeler had to be aimed at our major planet all the time so that it could transmit its observations to Earth .
" To keep the antenna maneuver at Earth , we used what ’s call ' bang - bang control , " Julie Webster , Cassini ’s space vehicle surgical operation chief at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( JPL ) , say in astatement . " We give the ballistic capsule a narrow reach over which it can circumvolve , and when it have intercourse up against that limit in one direction , it arouse a thruster to tip back the other way . "
Cassini could only move about 0.1 degrees in any steering before its thrusters put it back in crease . As the craft reached an height of 1,900 kilometer ( 1,200 miles ) from the cloud tops , the atmosphere start playing a bigger part . Cassini ’s 11 - meter ( 36 - foot ) long magnetometer boom , located on the side of the craft , go being pushed up and take the whole investigation rocking .
As predicted , the pusher started run hard , firing longer pulsation more often . The foxiness was able to travel through Saturn ’s atmosphere for 91 indorsement and in the last 20 seconds before loss of striking , the thrusters were ferment at almost 100 percent of their capacity . At the end of its expiry dip , Cassini was move at about 35 kilometers ( 22 miles ) per second , which is about 4.5 time the speed of the ISS .
" Given that Cassini was n’t design to fly into a global atmosphere , it ’s remarkable that the spacecraft have on as long as it did , allowing its science instruments to send back data point to the last second , " add Earl Maize , Cassini project handler at JPL . " It was a solidly establish workmanship , and it did everything we asked of it . "
Cassini spent 13 year studying Saturn and its unbelievable moons . It was a joint charge of NASA , the European Space Agency , and the Italian Space Agency . Its bequest include more than 4,000 scientific paper and over 450,000 images . It remains one of humankind ’s finest endeavour .
