Building Cassini

It’s not just a question of downloading data. Almost every aspect of the mission has benefited from British involvement. For example, a British company provided titanium hoses that feed Cassini's engines with fuel. While this may not be the biggest or most glamorous contribution, it was critical. How else would the engines get their fuel?

On a much more complex scale was the creation of the Surface Science Package (SSP) for the Huygens probe. This was a suite of instruments that studied the surface of Titan. The SSP was created by a British team, working first at the University of Kent in Canterbury and later at the Open University, with help from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. This package revolutionised our understanding of Titan.

Meanwhile, Imperial College took the lead in developing one of Cassini’s major instruments: the Dual Technique Magnetometer (MAG), designed to look at magnetic fields, not only on the journey to Saturn but also around Saturn itself. MAG is one of the most recognisable instruments on Cassini, as it’s mounted on the end of a 12-meter boom attached to the side of the craft. (MAG needs to keep its distance to avoid being swamped by electromagnetic fields generated by the spacecraft itself.) Magnetometer data analysed by the teams at Imperial College and the University of Leicester are shedding new light on Saturn’s magnetic environment.

Meanwhile the Mullard Space Science Laboratory built Cassini’s Electron Spectrometer. This experiment detects electrons around Saturn and measures their energy: a valuable clue in working out how the solar wind interacts with Saturn, its rings and its magnetic field.

The solar system is one giant laboratory. Here we can encounter extreme conditions, such as very cold temperatures and intense radiation. This is not just of value to our scientists. It tests our engineering and manufacturing prowess to the limits.