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The Planetary Report • July/August 1993
Return to the Saturnian System
On the Cover: The <i>Huygens</i> probe descends through Titan's murky, brownish-orange atmosphere of nitrogen and carbon-based molecules, beaming its findings to the distant <i>Cassini</i> orbiter. The probe is equipped with a variety of scientific sensors to measure the physical properties of the moon's atmosphere; it also carries an imaging device to return pictures of Titan's possibly hydrocarbon-lake-dotted surface. The <i>Cassini-Huygens</i> mission is scheduled to reach the Saturn system in 2004.
Features
4 Meeting With a Majestic Giant: Charley Kohlhase describes our upcoming return to Saturn with the Cassini-Huygens mission.
14 Revisiting Io: Jupiter's Volcanic Satellite: Charlene Anderson compares Voyager's views of Io with those of the Hubble Space Telescope.
18 The Future of Planetary Exploration: A dialogue between NASA administrator Daniel Goldin and Planetary Society President Carl Sagan.
15 Mining the Air: How Far Have We Progressed? Kumar Ramohalli gives us a look at the progress in this exciting technology.
Departments
3 Members' Dialogue Responses to Clay Kallam's letter in our May/June column.
24 Readers' Service To a Rocky Moon.
25 World Watch A sea of change at NASA.
26 News & Reviews Searching for planets.
27 Society Notes SETI, new Society advisor, and Paine Award nominations.
28 Q&A How do scientists distinguish between intergalactic dust vs. gas?
The Planetary Report • July/August 1993
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