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Cassini Plasma Spectrometer Resumes Operations |
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03.19.12
Artist concept of Cassini at Saturn. Image credit: NASA/JPL Cassini Mission Status Report
PASADENA, Calif. -- The Cassini plasma spectrometer instrument (CAPS) aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn
has resumed operations. Mission managers received confirmation on Friday, March 16, that it was turned on. They
plan to monitor the instrument for any unusual behavior.
Last June, short circuits in the instrument led
to unexpected voltage shifts on the spacecraft. As a precaution, mission managers turned off the CAPS instrument
while engineers investigated the issue. The investigation led to the conclusion that tin plating on electronics
components had grown "whiskers." The whiskers were very small, less than the diameter of a human hair, but they
were big enough to contact another conducting surface and carry electrical current. Researchers are still trying
to understand why whiskers grow on tin and other metals, but they know now that whiskers can grow in space and on
Earth. It is believed that these or additional tin whiskers that may grow on Cassini cannot carry enough current
to cause problems, but will burn out on their own like a lightweight fuse.
Cassini launched in 1997 and
has been exploring the Saturn system since 2004. The project completed its original prime mission in 2008 and has
been extended twice. Cassini is now in its solstice mission, which will enable scientists to observe seasonal
change in the Saturn system through the northern summer solstice.
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space
Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages
the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington.
More Cassini information is available at
https://www.nasa.gov/cassini and
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov .
Media contact:
Jia-Rui C. Cook 818-354-0850
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
jia-rui.c.cook@jpl.nasa.gov
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