Will Fly Through Rings And Enter Orbit

The general media calls it one of the most daring scientific missions ever undertaken -- and it should happen by the end of the month.

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is on final approach to Saturn, where it will fly between the planet and its rings before establishing orbit. That's the tricky part.

In penetrating the field of debris that surrounds Saturn -- perhaps the remnants of a lost moon -- Cassini will have to avoid specks of dust far too small for the eye to see. A particle as small as .04 inches in diameter can cause damage, perhaps fatal, to the probe.

"It's not a slam-dunk," warned Cassini program manager Robert Mitchell of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in an interview with the Washington Post. "I'll sleep better when we're in orbit."

But the reward is, for scientists, well worth the risk. After all, they'll be studying a miniature solar system of sorts. Saturn is not only surrounded by the famed rings, but by 31 moons that we know of. The biggest of them, Titan, is thought to hold the building blocks of life.

If all goes according to plan, NASA will ignite Cassini's engines for 96 minutes on June 30th, inserting the probe in orbit along a path that the latest scans of the gas giant indicate might be safest.

FMI: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm