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Alumnus to discuss space
mission
By Ginny You
Staff Writer
A Purdue alumnus will return to campus today to
speak about a space mission that he's intricately involved with.
The Cassini/Huygens Mission, the best-instrumented
probe ever sent to another planet, was sent to Saturn and one of its
moons, Titan. During its voyage, it neared Jupiter in December 1997,
which is 10 million kilometers (six million miles) away. Today, Purdue
alumnus, Kevin R. Grazier will talk about the mission at 4 p.m. in Physics,
Room 223; coffee will be served at 3:30 p.m. in Room 242.
The Cassini/Huygens Mission, launched October 15th,
1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, had to make several
stops on its way to Saturn because of its weight and to cut down on
fuel. After its seven-year trip, in which Cassini will pass by Venus
twice, Earth once and Jupiter once in the Venus-Venus-Earth-Jupiter
Gravity Assist, it will arrive at Saturn in July 2004 for a four-year
mission. During its stop at Jupiter, the solar system’s largest
planet, Cassini produced a massive amount of new data.
Cassini’s goal is to better understand Saturn,
its rings, magnetosphere or area surrounding Saturn, and its main moon,
Titan. It also hopes to provide insight to the creation of the solar
system. The European Space Agency's Huygens probe will take measurements,
collect data, and send immediate images of Titan, which is thought to
be similar to the early years of the Earth but colder.
Cassini examined how the sun’s solar wind
(charged gas ejected from the sun) affected Jupiter. It also probed
Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, to find out more about its fine dust
patterns. Jupiter’s atmosphere and eclipses were also studied.
The spacecraft is named after Italian-French astronomer
Jean-Dominique Cassini, who discovered four of Saturn's major moons
and the Cassini Division, Saturn’s split in its rings.
Grazier, of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the
California Institute of Technology, graduated from the Purdue physics
department and is the imaging science subsystem investigation scientist
and science planning engineer for the mission. His talk, "Cassini at
Jupiter," will discuss Jupiter’s results, the Saturn mission and
science objectives.
"(Grazier was invited for us) to learn the
latest results from the Cassini mission and the future potential of
the mission," said Laura Pyrak-Nolte, professor in the School of
Science and host of the talk.
Grazier was probably not the strongest student
in his class, said Andrew Hirsch, head of the physics department. Hirsch
said he hasn't met Grazier because he graduated before Hirsch obtained
his position, yet he admits that Grazier has succeeded and has become
a good influence on students.
"It’s great when a student who doesn’t
get straight A’s throughout school blooms later in life,"
said Hirsch. "Grazier presents a nice role model for students."
For more information on Cassini, visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cassini/.
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