juliensimon/cassini-saturn-observations

Cassini Saturn Observations

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI

Part of a dataset collection on Hugging Face.

Dataset description

Complete Cassini mission observation master schedule -- planned science observations spanning 2004 to 2017. Cassini orbited Saturn for 13 years, studying the planet, its rings, and its moons before its planned destruction in Saturn's atmosphere on September 15, 2017.

The Cassini-Huygens mission was one of the most ambitious planetary exploration endeavors ever undertaken. A joint NASA/ESA/ASI project, Cassini spent 13 years in orbit around Saturn, completing 294 orbits and 127 close flybys of Titan, along with numerous encounters with Enceladus, Rhea, Dione, and other Saturnian moons. The spacecraft carried 12 science instruments spanning imaging, spectroscopy, radar, magnetometry, and particle detection, operated by dedicated science teams (identified as CIRS, ISS, UVIS, VIMS, CAPS, MAG, RADAR, RPWS, and others in this observation schedule).

Among Cassini's landmark discoveries were the active water-ice geysers erupting from Enceladus's south polar tiger stripe fractures -- revealing a subsurface ocean with hydrothermal activity and the potential for habitability -- and the detailed characterization of Titan's methane hydrological cycle through RADAR mapping of surface lakes and seas. Cassini also observed the hexagonal jet stream at Saturn's north pole, tracked the evolution of a massive northern hemisphere storm in 2010-2011, measured Saturn's internal rotation period through ring seismology, and discovered seven new moons. The mission's Grand Finale in 2017 sent the spacecraft between Saturn's innermost ring and the planet's atmosphere, providing the closest-ever measurements of Saturn's gravity field and magnetic field.

This observation master schedule documents every planned science activity across the entire mission, making it possible to reconstruct which targets were observed, by which instrument teams, and when.

This dataset is suitable for tabular classification tasks.

Schema

Column	Type	Description	Sample	Null %
start_time_utc	datetime64[us]	Observation start time (UTC); covers 2004-2017, the full 13-year orbital mission at Saturn	2004-05-14 18:40:00	0.0%
duration	str	Planned duration of observation in HH:MM:SS format	000T01:00:00	0.0%
date	str	Calendar date in YYYY-DOY format (day-of-year) from the master schedule	14-May-04	0.0%
team	str	Science team responsible (e.g. CIRS=thermal IR, ISS=imaging, UVIS=UV, VIMS=visual/IR mapping, MAG=magnetometer, RPWS=radio/plasma, RADAR, CAPS=plasma spectrometer)	ADMIN	0.0%
spass_type	str	SPASS (Science Planning and Sequencing System) observation type code classifying the kind of science activity	Prime	0.9%
target	str	Observation target body (e.g. SATURN, TITAN, ENCELADUS, RINGS, RHEA, DIONE, IAPETUS)	Saturn	0.0%
request_name	str	Unique internal request name assigned by the sequencing system	TEST333	0.0%
library_definition	str	Reference to the observation library template defining instrument parameters	Magnetospheric survey	21.1%
title	str	Short human-readable observation title	MAPS Survey	7.0%
description	str	Detailed description of the science goals and instrument configuration for this observation	Milestone.	6.2%

Quick stats

• 63,022 planned observations (2004--2017)
• 46 distinct targets (most observed: Saturn)
• 15 science teams

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/cassini-saturn-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/cassini-saturn-observations", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Observations by target
df["target"].value_counts().head(10)

# Titan flybys
titan = df[df["target"] == "TITAN"].sort_values("start_time_utc")

# Timeline of observations per year
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
df["year"] = df["start_time_utc"].dt.year
df.groupby("year").size().plot(kind="bar")
plt.xlabel("Year")
plt.ylabel("Observations")
plt.title("Cassini observations per year")
plt.show()

Data source

https://pds-atmospheres.nmsu.edu/data_and_services/atmospheres_data/Cassini_PDS3/logs/

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• juliensimon/lunar-craters-robbins

• juliensimon/nasa-exoplanets

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About the author

Created by Julien Simon — AI Operating Partner at Fortino Capital. Part of the Space Datasets collection.

Citation

@dataset{cassini_saturn_observations,
  title = {Cassini Saturn Observations},
  author = {juliensimon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/cassini-saturn-observations},
  publisher = {Hugging Face}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0