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The Cassini Orbiter: A mother ship for the ages
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(CNN) -- Cassini is the last and largest of its kind. At nearly 13,000 pounds, it's half again as large as the Viking probes that visited Mars in the mid-1970s. Its 18 scientific instruments are the most comprehensive payload of any unmanned mission; the Voyager probes had only 11.
Built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Cassini is named for Jean-Dominique Cassini, a 17th- and 18th-century French astronomer whose discoveries included the gaps in Saturn's rings.
The orbiter itself is a vehicle for its instrument payload and the Huygens probe (Related story), with three antennae to send signals back to Earth. An array of instruments -- Cassini's "passengers" -- will take a variety of measurements of Saturn's atmosphere, its moons and the dust, rock and ice that comprise its rings.
An onboard camera is expected to return more than 300,000 color images of Saturn's mini-solar system.
Mission in Detail:
-- Cassini orbiter stands 22.3 feet high.
-- It will take more than an hour for instructions to reach Cassini once it arrives at Saturn.
-- Mission expected to produce most detailed picture of planet system.
While Huygens' descent and landing on Titan is the headliner on this mission, Cassini also will explore some of Saturn's other icy moons.
Using sophisticated imaging and monitoring devices, the orbiter will examine Enceladus, which appears to be composed entirely of ice, but also shows signs of containing an internal heat source, spouting geyserlike volcanoes on the moon.
During Cassini's four-year surveillance, Saturn's stunning rings also will come under scrutiny.
Scientists say closer observation could help to determine if the rings are the byproduct of Saturn's original formation or the remnants of former moons.
According to NASA scientist Wesley T. Huntress, Cassini's unprecedented study of the Saturnian system could one day shed light on the origins of our solar system.
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