NASA is about to crash a $3.3 billion spacecraft into Saturn

NASA will sacrifice its $3.3 billion Cassini spacecraft to ensure it doesn't contaminate life from Earth to other parts of the solar system.

Cassini spacecraft's journey to Saturn

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to crash the Cassini spacecraft into Saturn in September 2017 and burn it up to ensure that the spacecraft does not accidentally fall into one of Saturn's moons, infecting life with microorganisms brought from Earth, according to Independent.

The Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in July 2014. Since then, it has explored the planet and its 62 moons. The most famous of these are the early Earth-like moon Titan, and the moon Enceladus, which has a massive subsurface ocean and is a potential candidate for life.

The Cassini spacecraft studies Saturn. Photo: NASA.

But before it is destroyed, the Cassini spacecraft will carry out one last mission. On April 22, Cassini will pass by the moon Titan and use the moon's gravity to push itself into a new orbit between Saturn's atmosphere and the innermost ring, about 2,000 kilometers wide.

NASA hopes the Cassini spacecraft will survive long enough to fly into Saturn’s rings 22 times, to study their age and composition. But if even a small object in the rings collides with Cassini, the mission will soon end, as the spacecraft is traveling at extremely high speeds of about 70,000 mph.

“At that speed, even a small dust particle can damage the spacecraft,” said Joan Stupik, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

Based on the data collected, NASA wants to see if the rings are as old as Saturn (about 4.6 billion years) or if they formed after passing comets or moons were destroyed by the planet's immense gravity.

The Cassini spacecraft will also study Saturn's atmosphere and take measurements to determine the size of the rocky core believed to exist at the center of the gas giant planet, which accounts for most of its size.

According to VNE