Cassini also received flak from environmental groups who were concerned that when the spacecraft flew by Earth, its radioisotope thermoelectric generator (nuclear power) could pose a threat to our ...

Because without Cassini, Huygens didn’t have a ride ... In the outer solar system, plutonium is the best power source. Waite: There were a lot of people protesting because we had plutonium ...

Why end the mission? Although Cassini's main power is supplied by radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs — essentially nuclear batteries that were still going at mission's end — the ...

To power all of Cassini’s systems ... NASA proceeded uninterrupted toward launch. Cassini-Huygens lifted off without issue atop a Titan IV (401) B rocket from SLC-40 at the Cape Canaveral ...

Huygens Speaks! To hear Titan's winds click here. For Huygen's descent click here. Sleepless science Low on power and spinning out of control, NASA's Lunar Trailblazer moon probe's future looks ...

Both have rocket engines built in Redmond. The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, orbiting Saturn and sending back stunning images yesterday, was put there thanks to some local rocket scientists.

Cassini could even have still collected data, since all of its instruments run on power from a different ... But what of Huygens, the European Space Agency probe, that Cassini released onto ...

The European Space Agency's Huygens probe was successfully ... Titan's surface for as long as the batteries can power the instruments and the Cassini orbiter is visible over the horizon at the ...

The Huygens probe, built and managed by the European Space Agency (ESA), is bolted to Cassini and fed electrical power through an umbilical cable. It has been riding along during the nearly ...

The European Space Agency recalls the historic landing on the Saturn moon and the mission that made it possible. Credit: ESA Bee Gees Star Dead at 78 Rob McElhenney pays tribute to ‘American ...

The Cassini-Huygens mission increased our understanding of the planet’s rings and moons Aaron Boorstein - Staff Contributor One of Cassini's last looks at Saturn and its main rings from a ...