The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is offering a unique opportunity to have your signature sent to Saturn aboard the Cassini spacecraft which is destined for Saturn.

The JPL, along with the Planetary Society, will be scanning in the signatures of tens of thousands of Earthlings. The signatures will then be placed on a CD-ROM which will then be attached to Cassini.

Cassini will be launched in October/November 1997.
Cassini is one of the largest spacecraft ever produced, and as such, it will require several gravity boosts to get it to its target. Cassini will slingshot around Venus (twice), Earth, and Jupiter before arriving at its destination on July 1, 2004.

One of the more important goals for Cassini is to drop the European Space Agency's Huygens Atmospheric probe onto Saturn's moon, Titan. Titan has a thick nitrogen atmosphere which is filled with organic molecules, the building blocks of life.

However, it is unlikely that Cassini will find extraterrestrial life on Titan, as it is too cold for life as we know it to develop. However, study of Titan's organic-molecule rich atmosphere might lead to clues on how life on Earth came to be.

HOW TO HAVE YOUR SIGNATURE INCLUDED:

1) Sign your name on the non-address side of a plain postcard.
Please use dark ink that can be easily scanned.

2) Mail the card to: Cassini Program Jet Propulsion Laboratory 4800 Oak Grove Drive Pasadena, CA 91109-8099

*Signatures will be accepted until January 1, 1997, or until the CD-ROM is full.

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