NASA plans to send 10,000 tiny probes into Saturn's rings

NASA has funded a NIAC Phase I grant to develop a swarm of 10,000 expendable "femtosatellites" that would fly directly into Saturn's rings for close-up data collection. The previous flagship mission, Cassini, ended by plunging into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017 and was never able to directly approach the rings. The tiny probes would gather in-situ measurements from a region no spacecraft has yet explored up close.

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