The Cassini-Huygens – nice pictures but what about the cost?



	The Huygens Probe being transported by the Cassini spacecraft – it's as big as a bus! Click to enlarge.

The Cassini spacecraft is the first to explore Saturn, its rings and its moons from orbit. It was launched in 1997 and arrived in orbit around Saturn seven years later. It was a long journey.

Cassini carried the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe all the way from Earth and on arrival launched it into Titan's thick atmosphere. Now instruments on both spacecraft are providing scientists with vital data and the best views ever of this mysterious, vast region of our solar system.



Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute.

This picture was made by the Cassini spacecraft as it approached Saturn in 2004. Click it to see it full size.

The mission to get these pictures cost over $ 3,000 million to launch - this section addresses the question "Is it worth the cost?"

Next: How much does it cost to go into space?

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NOT RATED the word of god how it should be...lol 12-11-08 12:23

why dont they spend less money on space and more on poor starvin people in africa....

NOT RATED dave 17-12-08 15:18

i think it is a good idear because some time in the futor it wiil have paid of because if we find some other life then we could possibly trade with them learn there technology improve owers

NOT RATED Denis Hopkins 10-03-09 10:56

At no time in the Apollo Space programme that sent men to the Moon did it cost in any year as much as was spent in the USA on chewing gum. That might put the costs into perspective!