U.S., Europe Plan Probe of Saturn Moon

Europe and the United States hope to send a space probe to Titan, the solar system’s biggest moon and the only one with an atmosphere believed to be much like primordial Earth’s, the European Space Agency announced Friday.

The joint mission to Saturn’s immense, gas-shrouded moon would begin in 1996 and include a probe that may be able to test the moon’s soil.

The mission, to be called the Cassini-Titan probe, was chosen from a series of proposed joint projects during meetings Thursday and Friday of the European Space Agency’s Science Program Committee.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, however, is still seeking official approval for the $550-million project. It is expected to ask Congress for some funding during the 1990 fiscal year, NASA spokesman Charles Redmond said in Washington.

Redmond said he expects that the Europeans would contribute about $100 million to $150 million. They proposed paying for at least one major instrument system, helping to pay for some others and providing propulsion components.

The project is named after the 17th-Century Italian astronomer Gian Domenico Cassini.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system believed to have a thick, organic-rich nitrogen atmosphere. The surface temperature is about minus 354 degrees.

Scientists believe that the chemical processes in Titan’s atmosphere may resemble those at work on primitive Earth before the origin of life.

Cassini-Titan would to be launched by NASA in April, 1996, and arrive in the Saturn system in October, 2002, the European Space Agency said. Saturn and its system were briefly encountered in 1980-81 during the United States’ Voyager 1 and 2 missions.