STI BULLETIN ONLINE

A quarterly publication of the NASA Scientific and Technical Information (STI) Program

produced by the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) for the users of our

information products and services. 

October 2004

Featured Articles Publication News 

• Outreach Adventures

• Spinoff 2004 Coming Soon!

Departments

• From the Users

• From the STI Program Office

Focus On... The Cassini-Huygens Missions

• Current Topics

• NASA History

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Featured Articles 

Outreach Adventures 

The NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) 

Outreach Specialists Michelle Mariano, Kurt McIntyre, and 

Chris Stark took flight to the far reaches of NASA this 

summer with visits to the NASA Ames Research Center at

Moffett Field, California, and to the White Sands Test F

near Las Cruces, New Mexico. Charged with the task of

training staff at the NASA field centers on the STI dat

and with the opportunity of opening up lines of 

communications, Mariano and McIntyre spent August 10 

and 11, 2004, at Ames, while Stark stayed at White Sands, 

August 17 and 18, 2004. 

acility

abase
Ames Research Center

 with

ry

and 

these sessions that will enhance the database 

r all users.

ort they received from the 

mes Library staff, Mariano and McIntyre have deemed this trip a success! 

hite Sands Test Facility 

rts of Moira Romansky and 

er team in the Technology Information Section (TIS). What terrific hosts! 

.

cident 

e it’s never happened!), the prevailing westerly winds would carry the substance away

om the city. 

available in the 

atabase, as well as provide critical data to researchers preparing those publications. 

,

sion, and the Technology Information sections. Comments

from the participants were quite favorable. 

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During their visit in sunny California, Mariano and McIntyre

were welcomed by the friendly staff of the Ames Library. 

Together, they invaded the cafeteria at lunchtime armed

flyers and a computer to spread the word to the Ames 

community about the NASA STI database. Later on, they 

conducted an in-depth demonstration of the database to a

room full of eager listeners. Attendees included the libra

staff, many scientists and engineers, and the Assistant 

Center Director for Technology, Peter Friedland. Mariano

McIntyre brought back to CASI positive and constructive 

feedback from

fo

Thanks to the tremendous supp

A

W

Stark spent 2 days at the White Sands and thoroughly enjoyed the interaction with the NASA employees 

and contractors alike. The trip would not have been possible without the effo

h

White Sands’ primary mission is to provide support to the Space Shuttle and Space Station Programs

Since its inception in 1962, White Sands has been a preeminent resource for testing and evaluating 

potentially hazardous materials, space flight components, and rocket propulsion systems-- it’s no ac

that WSTF is located east of the city of Las Cruces. For in the rare event of a leakage of hazardous 

material (so rar

fr

The meeting between CASI’s Stark and the White SandsTechnology Information Section (TIS) staff

provided a chance for both to coordinate in promoting similar efforts. The mission of the TIS is to

“provide customers with responsive, team-based support for producing quality scientific and technical 

publications.” CASI’s goals are to acquire the White Sands publications and make them

d

During the 2-day visit, Stark conducted four database training sessions at White Sands to the Laboratory

the Environmental/Administration, the Propul

 

Spinoff 2004 Com

o

order

ing Soon! 

The highly anticipated release of Spinoff 2004 is scheduled for later this month. T

receive a complimentary copy of the new issue upon release, please contact the

National Technology Transfer Center at 1-800-678-6882 or go to the online

form at http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/spin_order_form.html. Soon after the 

magazine release, Spinoff 2004 will also be available on an interactive CD-ROM, 

complete with Web links and streaming audio and video. Please check the Spin

Web site (

off

http://www.sti.nasa.gov/tto/) for more information on the CD-ROM 

lease date.

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re
STI BULLETIN ONLINE

Focus On ... The Cassini-Huygens Mission 

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Technicians reposition and level the Cassini orbiter. Once the two spacecraft became one, 

technicians began the laborious loading of the school bus-size spacecraft into the Titan IVB/Centaur launch vehicle.

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has begun its 4-year tour of Saturn. Since its 

launch from Kennedy Space Center on October 15, 1997, the spacecraft has 

followed an intricate trajectory and is now in orbit around the giant ringed 

planet. During the next 4 years, its instruments will gather data on many

features of Saturn, including its rings, its atmosphere, and its moons. Titan is 

the moon of particular interest to scientists, since its unique environment and 

thick atmosphere may resemble that of Earth some several billion years ago.

In December 2004, the Huygens probe is scheduled to separate from the 

Cassini Orbiter and drop to the surface of Titan, collecting data on the moon’s

atmosphere and images of its surface and sending them to the Cassini Orbiter 

overhead for playback to Earth. 

This graphic depicts the planned interplanetary flight path beginning with launch from Earth on October 15, 1997, followed by gravity 

assist flybys of Venus (April 26, 1998 and June 21, 1999), Earth (August 18, 1999), and Jupiter (December 30, 2000). Saturn arrival 

occurred on June 30, 2004, which marks the beginning of a 4-year orbital tour of the Saturn system.

Cassini-Huygens is a massive spacecraft loaded with an 

array of powerful instruments and sensors for exploration 

of Saturn’s vast system. Its long journey has already 

provided new data about Jupiter, which it flew by in 2000.

More recently, scientists have been excited by closer l

at the moon Phoebe and the rings themselves than ever 

before. Two new Saturnian moons are among the most

recent discoveries. 

ooks

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a collaboration of NASA, 

the European Space Agency, and the Italian Space 

Agency. More than 250 scientists worldwide will study the 

data collected. 
The citations below provide a sample of recently published information found in the NTRS: NASA Technical 

Reports Server. Some documents are available in full-text Portable Document Format (PDF) files that you 

can download free of charge, while others can be purchased through the STI Help Desk at 301-621-0390 

or help@sti.nasa.gov. Please use the document identification numbers listed below when contacting the 

Help Desk. You can also keep up to date on this topic by checking Scientific and Technical Aerospace 

Reports (STAR), a biweekly abstract journal, in Category 18 – Spacecraft Design, Testing and Performance 

and in Category 91 – Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration. You can find STAR on the STI web site 

at www.sti.nasa.gov. 

Dayton, James A., Jr.; Wilson, Jeffrey D.; Kory, Carol L.; Computer Analysis of Spectrum Anomaly 

in 32-GHz Traveling-Wave Tube for Cassini Mission; 19990024827 

Dodd, Suzanne; Gustavson, Robert; Flying Cassini with Virtual Operations Teams; 20000054880 

Hughes, William O.; McNelis, Anne M.; Himelblau, Harry; Investigation of Acoustic Fields for the 

Cassini Spacecraft: Reverberant Versus Launch Environments; 20000120397 

Lakew, Brook; Brasunas, J. C.; High- and Mid-temperature Superconducting Sensors for Far 

IR/Sub-mm Applications in Space; 20040068217 

Mudgway, Douglas J.; Launius, Roger; Uplink-Downlink: A History of the Deep Space Network, 

1957-1997; 20020033033 

Sittler, E.; Johnson, R. E.; Jurac, S.; Richardson, J.; McGrath, M.; Crary, F.; Young, D.; Nordholt, J. 

E.; Pickup Ions at Dione and Enceladus; 20020079428 

Spilker, Linda J.; Passage to a Ringed World: The Cassini-Huygens Mission to Saturn and Titan; 

20040052869 

Thronson, Harley; Enabling Telescopes of the Future: Long-Range Technology Investing; 

20040074312 

Wishnow, E. H.; Gush, H. P.; Halpern, M.; Ozier, I.; Submillimeter Spectra of Low Temperature 

Gases and Mixtures; 20030058895 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE

Departments

• From the Users

o NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server

o Did You Know?

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From the Users 

NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server 

A new feature of the NTRS: NASA Technical Reports Server is the display of NASA Accession Numbers, 

also known as N numbers. These numbers were used before 1998 to identify NASA-distributed microfiche, 

and many libraries filed the fiche by the numbers. The appearance of the N number in the NTRS record 

will make it easier for librarians and library customers to determine whether a document is available 

locally. Many NTRS users have requested that the Accession Number be displayed and will find this new 

feature valuable. 

You can also search by the Accession Number by entering it in the text box on the Simple Search screen 

or in the box labeled “Accession ID” on the Advanced Search screen. 

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Did You Know?

The Internet Archive Web site http://www.archive.org, also called the Wayback Machine, includes many

NASA pages. If you are looking for an older version of a NASA site or document, you may find it helpful. 

Search tips and other information about the project are in the FAQ at the following address: 

http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php

According to the Web site, “The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) public nonprofit that was founded to build 

an ‘Internet library,’ with the purpose of offering permanent access for researchers, historians, and 

scholars to historical collections that exist in digital format.” For more, see this Web site. 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE

Departments 

• From the STI Program Office

o NASA History Books Available From CASI

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From the STI Program Office 

NASA History Books Available From CASI 

The NASA History Office and the NASA Center for AeroSpace Information (CASI) have reached an 

agreement to make some of the many books available from the History Office also available through CASI. 

The books come in original hardbound or paperback versions. CASI also sends these books to the 

Government Printing Office and the National Technical Information Service. CASI's first selection is a book 

edited by John M. Logsdon, with Stephen J. Garber, Roger D. Launius, and Ray A. Williamson, entitled, 

"Exploring the Unknown, Volume VI: Space and Earth Science." The book is available in original 

hardbound version and may be ordered online at: https://www.sti.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/ordersti.pl or by 

contacting CASI by telephone at 301-621-0390 or by email at help@sti.nasa.gov. The History Office 

publishes numerous books to document and preserve NASA's remarkable legacy and serves two key 

functions: fulfilling the mandate of the 1958 "Space Act" calling for NASA to disseminate aerospace 

information as widely as possible, and helping NASA managers understand and thus benefit from the 

study of past accomplishments and difficulties. For more information on the NASA History Office and its 

publications, visit the Web site at: http://history.nasa.gov. 

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STI BULLETIN ONLINE

Publication News 

• Current Topics

o Ejection of the Huygens Probe

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Current Topics 

Ejection of the Huygens Probe 

In December 2004, Cassini will eject the Huygens probe. After its 22-day coast, the cone-shaped probe 

will descend into Titan's cloudy atmosphere. Three sets of parachutes will deploy to slow the probe and to

provide a stable platform for scientific measurements. Instruments on board will collect information about

the atmosphere's chemical composition and the clouds surrounding Titan. The data will be radioed to the 

Cassini orbiter, which will then relay the data to Earth. 

About 2 hours after entering Titan's atmosphere, the probe will land near the moon's equator. If Huygens 

survives the impact, the probe might be able to communicate with the spacecraft for a few minutes after 

landing on the frozen surface of Titan. Huygens will be the furthest human-made object ever to land on a 

celestial body.

B. Kazeminejad and D.H. Atkinson, “The ESA Huygens Probe Entry and Descent Trajectory 

Reconstruction,” Proc. Int. Workshop on Planetary Probe Atmospheric Entry and Descent Trajectory 

Analysis and Science, Lisbon, 6-9 October 2003. ESA SP-544, pp. 137-149. 

Jean-Pierre Lebreton and Dennis L. Matson, “The Huygens Mission to Titan: Overview and Status,”

Proc. Int. Workshop on Planetary Probe Atmospheric Entry and Descent Trajectory Analysis and 

Science, Lisbon, 6-9 October 2003. ESA SP-544, pp. 21-30. 

M. Fulchignoni, et al., “Huygens: Science, Payload, and Mission,” ESA, SP-1177, 177-195, 1997. 

Conference Proceedings of the European Space Agency’s Titan: From Discovery to Encounter. 

http://sci2.esa.int/huygens/conference/. 
STI BULLETIN ONLINE

Publication News 

• NASA History

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NASA History 

GReat Images in NASA (GRIN) is a collection of over a thousand images of significant historical interest

scanned at high-resolution in several sizes. The following is a sample of great Saturn images in NASA 

history. 

Pioneer 11 was launched on April 5, 1973, and was the first 

spacecraft to visit Saturn. The irregularities in ring silhouette and 

shadow are due to technical anomalies in the preliminary data

later corrected. Looking at the rings from left to right, the ring 

area begins with the outer A Ring; the Encke Division; the inner 

A Ring; Cassini Division; the B Ring; the C Ring; and the 

innermost area where the D Ring would be. The image was made 

by Pioneer Saturn on Wednesday, August 26, 1979, and received 

on Earth at 3:19 pm PDT. Pioneer was, at that time, 1,768,422 

miles (2,846,000 kilometers) from Saturn. The image was 

produced by computer at the University of Arizona and managed 

by NASA's Ames Research Center. 

Two Voyager spacecraft were launched in 1977 to explore the outer 

planets and some of their satellites. A prototype Voyager spacecraft is

shown at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as it 

successfully passed vibration tests, which simulated the expected launch 

environment. The large parabolic antenna at the top is 3.7 meters in 

diameter and was used at both S-band and X-band radio frequencies for 

communicating with Earth over the great distances from the outer planets. 

The spacecraft received electrical power from three nuclear power sources 

(lower left). The shiny cylinder on the left side under the antenna 

contained a folded boom, which extended after launch to hold a 

magnetometer instrument 13 meters away from the body of the 

spacecraft. The truss-like structure on the right side is the stowed

instrument boom, which supported three science instruments and a scan 

platform. The scan platform allowed the accurate pointing of two cameras 

and three other science instruments at Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, the moons 

of each of those planets, and Neptune. 
This picture of the Earth and Moon in a single frame, the first of its kind ever 

taken by a spacecraft, was recorded September 18, 1977, by NASA’s 

Voyager 1 when it was 7.25 million miles (11.66 million kilometers) from 

Earth. The Moon is at the top of the picture and beyond the Earth as viewed 

by Voyager. In the picture are eastern Asia, the western Pacific Ocean, and

part of the Arctic. Voyager 1 was directly above Mt. Everest (on the night 

side of the planet at 25 degrees north latitude) when the picture was taken. 

The photo was made from three images taken through color filters, and then

processed by the Image Processing Lab at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). 

Because the Earth is many times brighter than the Moon, the Moon was 

artificially brightened by a factor of three relative to the Earth by computer 

enhancement so that both bodies would show clearly in the prints. Voyager 1 

was launched September 5, 1977 and JPL is responsible for the Voyager 

mission. 

Voyager 2 was launched August 20, 1977, 

16 days before Voyager 1, aboard a Titan-Centaur rocket. Their 

different flight trajectories caused Voyager 2 to arrive at Jupiter 4 

months later than Voyager 1, thus explaining their numbering. The

initial mission plan for Voyager 2 specified visits only to Jupiter and 

Saturn. The plan was augmented in 1981 to include a visit to Uranus, 

and again in 1985 to include a flyby of Neptune. After completing the 

tour of the outer planets in 1989, the Voyager spacecraft began 

exploring interstellar space. The Voyager mission has been managed by 

NASA's Office of Space Science and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

This Voyager 2 view, focusing on Saturn's

C Ring (and to a lesser extent, the B Ring 

at top and left) was compiled from three 

separate images taken through 

ultraviolet, clear, and green filters. On 

August 23, 1981, when it acquired these 

frames, Voyager 2 was 1.7 million miles 

lanet. In general, C Ring material is very

bland and gray, the color of dirty ice. Color differences between this ring 

and the B Ring indicate differing surface compositions for the material 

composing these complex structures. More than 60 bright and dark ringlet

are evident here; the small, blank squares are caused by the removal of 

reseau (reference) marks during processing. 

(2.7 million kilometers) from the p

s

A 7-year journey to the ringed planet Saturn began with the liftoff of a Titan 

IVB/Centaur carrying the Cassini orbiter and its attached Huygens probe. 

Launch occurred at 4:43 a.m. EDT, October 15, 1997 from Launch Complex 

40 on Cape Canaveral Air Station. After a 2.2-billion mile journey that will

include two swing-bys of Venus and one of Earth to gain additional velocity, 

the two-story tall spacecraft arrived at Saturn on June 30, 2004. The orbiter 

will circle the planet for 4 years, its complement of 12 scientific instruments

gathering data about Saturn's atmosphere, rings, and magnetosphere, and

conducting close-up observations of the Saturnian moons. Huygens, with a 

separate suite of six science instruments, will separate from Cassini to fly on 

a ballistic trajectory toward Titan, the only celestial body besides Earth to 

have an atmosphere rich in nitrogen. Scientists are eager to study further this

chemical similarity in hopes of learning more about the origins of our own

planet Earth. Huygens will provide the first direct sampling of Titan's 

atmospheric chemistry and the first detailed photographs of its surface. The 

Cassini mission is an international effort involving NASA, the European Space 

Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI). 

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the U.S. contribution to the mission 
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. The major U.S. contractor is Lockheed Martin, which 

provided the launch vehicle and upper stage, spacecraft propulsion module, and radioisotope 

thermoelectric generators that will provide power for the spacecraft. The Titan IV/Centaur is a U.S. Air 

Force launch vehicle, and launch operations were managed by the 45th Space Wing. 

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