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Conceiving and funding the mission

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Book cover The Cassini-Huygens Visit to Saturn

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Abstract

The mysteries of Saturn, its rings, its fields and particles, and its moons, have enticed and perplexed scientists for many years. The Cassini-Huygens mission sought to shed light on these mysteries by exploring the entire Saturnian system in greater depth than had ever been attempted before, using the largest and most sophisticated interplanetary vehicle that NASA had ever built or launched. This book examines all aspects of the project: its conception and planning; the political processes, engineering, and development necessary to make it a reality; its 2.2 billion mile (3.5 billion kilometer) journey to the ringed planet; and what it found there.

The Cassini-Huygens mission will probably help answer some of the big questions … about origins and where we came from and where life came from.”

– Robert (Bob) Mitchell, Program Manager of the Cassini-Huygens Mission1

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Meltzer, M. (2015). Conceiving and funding the mission. In: The Cassini-Huygens Visit to Saturn. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07608-9_1

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