2017.03.30：NASAの土星探査機カッシーニの最後の旅が始まる…

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft will make 22 orbits of Saturn during its Grand Finale, exploring a totally new region between the planet and its rings.
NASAの土星探査機カッシーニはその探査活動の最後に、土星と土星の環との間の今まで探査されたことのないところを22周にわたり周回し観測をします。
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

オリジナル記事：NASA to Preview ‘Grand Finale’ of Cassini Saturn Missio

NASA will hold a news conference at 3 p.m. EDT Tuesday, April 4, at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, to preview the beginning of Cassini’s final mission segment, known as the Grand Finale, which begins in late April. The briefing will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.
NASAは4月4日（火曜日）午後3時、カリフォルニア州パサデナにあるジェット推進研究所（JPL）で、4月下旬に始まるグランドフィナーレと呼ばれるカッシーニの最終ミッションの開始プレビューについて記者会見する予定です。ブリーフィングは、NASAテレビとNASAの公式サイトでストリーミング中継されます。

Cassini has been orbiting Saturn since June 2004, studying the planet, its rings and its moons. A final close flyby of Saturn’s moon Titan on April 22 will reshape the Cassini spacecraft’s orbit so that it begins its final series of 22 weekly dives through the unexplored gap between the planet and its rings. The first of these dives is planned for April 26. Following these closer-than-ever encounters with the giant planet, Cassini will make a mission-ending plunge into Saturn’s upper atmosphere on Sept. 15.
カッシーニは2004年6月から土星の軌道上から土星および土星の環を観測しています。 4月22日の土星の衛星タイタンへの最後の最接近は、カッシーニ探査機の軌道が土星と土星の環の間を22回にわたり通過する軌道に移る際のことでした。その最後の周回の第1回目は4月26日に予定されています。そして最後には巨大惑星(土星)へ接近し、カッシーニは9月15日に土星の大気上層部に突入する予定です。

The panelists for the briefing are:

Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division at the agency’s headquarters in Washington
Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at JPL
Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL
Joan Stupik, Cassini guidance and control engineer at JPL

Media who would like to attend the event at JPL must arrange access in advance by contacting Gina Fontes in the JPL Media Relations Office at 818-354-9380 or georgina.d.fontes@jpl.nasa.gov. Media who arrange access must bring to the event valid media credentials, and for non-U.S. citizens, valid passports.

To participate by phone, media must email their name and affiliation to georgina.d.fontes@jpl.nasa.gov by 8 a.m. April 4.
Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.
Supporting graphics, video and background information about Cassini’s Grand Finale will be posted before the briefing at:http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/grandfinale

The Cassini mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

For more information about Cassini, go to:http://www.nasa.gov/cassini
and
http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov
-end-

Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

Preston Dyches
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-394-7013
preston.dyches@jpl.nasa.gov

Last Updated: March 30, 2017
Editor: Karen Northon