PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION 
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

PHOTO CAPTION                      Aug. 21, 1997
                                   P-49708 

A Digital Video Disk (DVD) bearing 616,400 digitized signatures 
of people from nations around the world has been attached to the 
Cassini spacecraft and will soon be on its way to Saturn.  The 
disk cover, designed by Cassini science and engineering manager 
Charley Kohlhase, shows the flags from 28 of the 81 nations whose 
citizens sent signatures for the chance to send their names into 
space.  The planet Saturn with its rings and its moon Titan and 
the Earth are also represented, as is the Cassini spacecraft and 
its Huygens probe.  The feathers represent the Golden Eagle, 
whose feathers were used as quills for writing to spread wisdom. 
The bird is revered in mythology for carrying spirits above the 
Earth to the heavens.  The flags, going clockwise from the 
American flag top center, are in order of the number of 
signatures collected, with the highest number from the United 
States.  
     
The disk is fitted into a shallow cavity between two pieces of 
aluminum that will protect it from micrometeoroid impacts.  The 
package will be mounted to the side of the 2-story- tall 
spacecraft beneath a pallet carrying cameras and other science 
instruments that will be used to study the Saturnian system.  A 
specially designed, multicolored patch of thermal blanket 
material will be installed over the disk package.  Along with the 
spacecraft, the disk will reside in Saturn's orbit centuries 
after the primary mission is completed in July 2008.  The Cassini 
mission is managed for NASA's Office of Space Science, 
Washington, D.C., by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of 
the California Institute of Technology.  

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