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Special Seminar
Lord of the Rings: The Cassini Mission to Saturn
4:00 pm
Avaya Auditorium (POB 2.302) with reception to follow
Cassini’s mission to the ringed planet will be covered in detail. Topics covered include the Cassini spacecraft design, trajectory to Saturn, cruise science results, Saturn Orbit Insertion, and science results from the four-year prime mission. Discussions of the two-year extended mission (the Cassini Equinox Mission), seven-year doubly extended mission (the Cassini Solstice Mission) and the September 2017 End of Mission plan will be covered as well. Images and videos highlighting Cassini results at Saturn will be presented, covering Cassini’s five coequal science objectives of understanding Saturn’s rings, magnetosphere, icy satellites, large moon Titan and Saturn itself.
Todd Barber is a JPL senior propulsion engineer, now working as lead propulsion engineer on the Cassini mission to Saturn following part-time work on the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, Deep Impact Mission and the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. Cassini was launched on October 15, 1997 on its two-billion mile, seven-year journey to the ringed planet. The MER team launched twin rovers to the red planet in June and July of 2003. Todd worked as the lead impactor propulsion engineer on Deep Impact, which successfully crashed into Comet Tempel-1 on Independence Day 2005, at twenty-three thousand miles per hour.
Mr. Barber also worked on the Galileo project for over seven years for which he received NASA's Exceptional Achievement Award in 1996.
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