...Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

Tennyson "Ulysses"

This is the neat stuff that you'd hear on a news broadcast or in a short magazine article; it's material stuff, tangible stuff that we can all get our mind around without getting a headache.

But there's a lot behind a planetary mission that isn't visible to the bare eye; there are people, plans, and coordination; strategies and complex techniques that folks here at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory think about and haggle over; and let's not forget keeping the cost to you guys, the taxpayers, as low as possible while still designing a great mission.

The mission designers have to think about these kinds of things, and often have to hold half a dozen problems in their head at once to see the right answer. They have to know a little bit about everything, from the kind of fuel that gets the best mileage, to how faint the signal from the spacecraft is, to exactly where Saturn is going to be 20 years and 5 seconds from now. They're a lot like the glue that helps hold everything together. It's not easy, but often very rewarding.

In these pages we'll talk about Cassini's mission - where and when we're going, how we're going to get there, and what we'll do with our great spacecraft - in language that anyone can understand. Here's what it's all about!

Many of these pages have neat pictures related to the topic of discussion. Often you can click on the images for a larger, higher resolution version (like the picture of Saturn above). Click on a topic you are interested in below to get started!

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