Cassini’s ‘Grand Finale’ Marks The End Of An Era, But Not The End Of NASA’s Plans For Saturn
Cassini’s “grand finale” marked a bittersweet moment for the scientists behind the mission as NASA’s spacecraft took a bow and crashed into Saturn’s atmosphere. Thus marked the proverbial end of an era for NASA as it concluded a mission that had, for the past 13 years, brought back so much information on the ringed planet and its moons. But it won’t be the end for the space agency as far as exploring Saturn is concerned.
According to a report from the Los Angeles Times, NASA is in the process of going through options for the next New Frontiers mission. This is a program covering “medium-sized” missions, including Juno to Jupiter, New Horizons to Pluto, and OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid Bennu. With New Frontiers now evaluating candidates for new missions as it does every five years or so, these potential missions include a probe to Saturn as well as a trip to one of the planet’s watery moons, Titan or Enceladus.
