Mission Name Cassini: Mission to Saturn Download Cassini-UVIS Patch (2Mb) Download LASP Cassini Poster (2015 kb) LASP Instruments UVIS: UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph Principal Investigator: Larry Esposito Destination Saturn Launch Date October 15, 1997 Launch Location Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida Launch Vehicle Titan IV-B/Centaur Mission Duration 7 year journey to Saturn, 4 years+ in Saturn System Mission Description/ LASP involvement UVIS is one of 12 instruments on-board the Cassini spacecraft. In 1996 and 1997, the LASP Engineering Division built the UVIS instrument with the participation of the Max Plank Institute of Lindau, Germany. LASP's Mission Ops Division took over control of the instrument after launch. UVIS will measure ultraviolet light in the Saturnian system and will provide information on the atmospheric composition and photochemistry of Saturn and Titan, and the nature and history of Saturn's moons and rings. LASP scientists will study and analyze this data. (Read more about LASP involvement below). LASP Divisions Involved Engineering * Science * Mission Ops LASP Mission Web Page http://lasp.colorado.edu/cassini/ Official Mission Web Page http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

The Cassini Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph (UVIS) is part of the remote sensing payload of the Cassini Orbiter spacecraft.

UVIS science objectives include investigation of the:

• Chemistry, clouds, and energy balance of the Titan and Saturn atmospheres
• Neutrals in the magnetosphere
• Surfaces and tenuous atmospheres of icy satellites
• Deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) ratio for Titan and Saturn
• Structure and evolution of Saturn's ring

The goal for this mission is for Cassini-UVIS to take accurate measurements for at least 4 years. The Cassini spacecraft (2,500 kilograms of hardware and 3,000 kilograms of propellant) delivered the European-built Huygens probe to Saturn's moon Titan in July 2004 and is now touring the Saturnian system for nearly four years. Approximately 1,300 academic and industrial partners in 16 European countries are participating in 32 different states in the US. The mission is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and for ESA by the European Space Technology and Research Center in Noordwijk, the Netherlands. The Italian Space Agency contributed the orbiter's 4 meter diameter high-gain antenna for communications and portions of other orbiter science experiments. The United States supplied batteries and two science instruments for Huygens.

Engineering:

LASP built one of the twelve instruments on-board the Cassini spacecraft:

• UVIS: UltraViolet Imaging Spectrograph

The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph Subsystem (UVIS) is a set of telescopes used to measure ultraviolet light from the Saturn system's atmospheres, rings, and surfaces. The UVIS will also observe the fluctuations of starlight and sunlight as the sun and stars move behind the rings and the atmospheres of Titan and Saturn, and it will determine the atmospheric concentrations of hydrogen and deuterium.

Science:

UVIS measures the composition of the atmospheres of Saturn and Titan, their clouds, thermospheres, and heavy hydrogen abundances. Dynamical waves and wakes in the rings of Saturn and the upper atmospheric structure will be measured by observing stellar and solar occultations. The LASP UVIS Science team includes Principal Investigator: Larry Esposito, Co-Investigators: George Lawrence, Bill McClintock, Charles Barth, Joshua Colwell and Ian Stewart.

Mission Ops:

The LASP Mission Ops Division will operate/control the UVIS instrument and its experiments. Alain Jouchoux is the UVIS Operations Team Leader, assisted by Michelle Kelley and Darren Osborne.