NASA engineer to give insider's view of Cassini-Huygens Saturn mission

Ever since it arrived in orbit around Saturn in July, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft has been sending back dazzling images of the ringed planet, as well as data that will keep scientists busy for years.

The design and execution of the Cassini-Huygens mission is a fascinating story, and an Oct. 12 lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will give a first-hand account of it. Leo Cheng, science planning engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., will discuss "Planning a Trip to Saturn: An Insider's View of the Cassini-Huygens Mission" beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the auditorium of the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. The lecture is free and open to the public and will be designed to appeal to a wide audience.

Cheng will describe what it is like to work on robotic space missions and how scientists and engineers plan for trips to the outer planets. He will use examples from his several JPL missions to describe the rewards, challenges, mishaps and occasional personality conflicts in the world of rocket scientists. The talk will conclude with images and data just returned from Saturn.

A native of the Pacific island of Guam, Cheng became fascinated with space while growing up under the clear, dark skies of his isolated tropical home. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics at California State Polytechnic University in Pomona and a master's degree in physics at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. Cheng started his career at JPL as an assistant science coordinator for the Galileo mission to Jupiter (1989-95), and worked in commercial aviation for Northrup-Grumman and Boeing before returning to JPL in 2001.

Cheng's lecture is sponsored by Project Fulcrum, a partnership between UNL and Lincoln Public Schools that teams graduate students in math, science and engineering with elementary and middle school teachers to improve the quality of math and science education. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

CONTACT: Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, Assoc. Professor, Physics & Astronomy, (402) 472-8685