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How to use Cassini Grand Finale 3D Explorer

  1. Open the Cassini Grand Finale 3D Explorer and wait for the canvas to paint.
  2. Drag to orbit the view and scroll or pinch to zoom in on Saturn, the rings, and Titan.
  3. Drag the phase slider from 0 to 99 to move the spacecraft to any point on the 2016-2017 endgame timeline.
  4. Press Play to animate the full mission timeline continuously, or Pause to stop and inspect a phase.
  5. Click Saturn, the rings, or Titan to refresh the facts panel with the current mission phase.

The facts panel lists the real published NASA/JPL dates and figures for each phase - see the explorer's numbers table for the full reference.

Companion guide for the Cassini Grand Finale 3D Explorer, covering the phase slider and Play/Pause controls in detail so you can move straight to the mission phase you want to see.

The explorer itself runs entirely client-side in the browser with the vendored three.js engine - no account, no install, and no scene data leaves your device. For the wider picture, the Space 3D collection also has a DART Asteroid Deflection explorer for another real spacecraft-trajectory mission and a Titan Methane Lakes explorer for the moon Cassini studied for 13 years.

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