This Friday Will be Last Flight For NASA's Cassini

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monkeymagick

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On Friday morning, NASA will send its Cassini spacecraft into Saturn's atmosphere after more than 13 years of touring the planet. Called its "Grand Finale," the final stage will take the spacecraft through Saturn's rings and onto the planet, the closest it has ever gotten. The plan is prevent any contamination from the microbes the spacecraft maybe carrying from Earth by having it burn up in the atmosphere.

Check out the planned finale.
 
Only 13 years old?

pF1phOg.gif
 
Don't remember the name of it exactly, but recently watched a 2017 made show (on Amazon I believe) about the Cassini and how it's performed well beyond expectations, the last part talked about this event coming next, great stuff.

Great job all around for those working on it! Congrats!
 
They should of sent the Unabomber to mars since he lived in isolation and he could make any repairs to the Mars Rover.
 
knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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This is exactly what I thought!
 
knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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Not quite. But try again with periods.


They're burning it up in Saturn so if the probe was to crash on Titan or another moon, it won't contaminate it. If they just let the probe orbit Saturn until it runs out of fuel, it has a very likely chance of crashing into one of the moons. Saturn will burn it and all hitch hikers aboard.
 
knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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You obviously didn't read the actual article and don't know how to run space missions.

"Two of the planet’s moons — Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean, and Titan, with lakes of methane — may have the right conditions to harbor life. By destroying Cassini, NASA ensures the spacecraft will never accidentally wander near the moons and contaminate them with microbes that may have hitched a ride from Earth"

Cassini was designed to be a 4 year mission. I think 13 years is more than what we paid for.

"It couldn’t last forever: the spacecraft only has a limited amount of fuel, and eventually the team would lose the ability to maneuver Cassini in space."
 
knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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That's why they do their job and you do whatever it is you do...

Cassini has well paid for itself in the information it's brought back to us. It's 20 years old. Most NASA missions don't last that long.
 
Perhaps they can get a few extra bits of data during reentry before it starts to burn off!
 
Gasaraki_ said:
You obviously didn't read the actual article and don't know how to run space missions.

"Two of the planet’s moons — Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean, and Titan, with lakes of methane — may have the right conditions to harbor life. By destroying Cassini, NASA ensures the spacecraft will never accidentally wander near the moons and contaminate them with microbes that may have hitched a ride from Earth"

Cassini was designed to be a 4 year mission. I think 13 years is more than what we paid for.

"It couldn’t last forever: the spacecraft only has a limited amount of fuel, and eventually the team would lose the ability to maneuver Cassini in space."
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Remember Cassini has a nuclear decay generator. Jupiter is perfect to get rid of it.
 
Rahh said:
This is exactly what I thought!
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They dont want to influence potential life on the planet. Also prevent the creation of space bugs that could return to earth / lurk in wait for humans in the future? Dun dun dunnnnn.... dunnnnnnn♫
 
Wizard220 said:
Remember Cassini has a nuclear decay generator. Jupiter is perfect to get rid of it.
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That decay generator doesn't help it maneuver, it simply runs all the electronics and helps keep things from freezing up. There is still a compressed gas system to provide thrusts.
 
lostinseganet said:
They dont want to influence potential life on the planet. Also prevent the creation of space bugs that could return to earth / lurk in wait for humans in the future? Dun dun dunnnnn.... dunnnnnnn♫
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Reminds me of that movie Life. Scared the shit out of me
 
The view falling into Saturn must be amazing.

lastadventur.jpg



knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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Thanks Obama
 
Wolf-R1 said:
That's why they do their job and you do whatever it is you do...

Cassini has well paid for itself in the information it's brought back to us. It's 20 years old. Most NASA missions don't last that long.
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Some last 73 seconds.
 
Everyone slap on your aluminum foil hats and behold.... Project Lucifer!

https://www.universetoday.com/15905...cassini-turn-saturn-into-a-second-sun-part-1/

Short version... some believe that the 72 pounds of plutonium onboard Cassini (used for RTG / battery power) will go critical during the atmo entry to Saturn, causing a giant nuclear reaction which will ignite the atmosphere and turn Saturn into another sun. Yeah, good times. I've read both sides of the argument and I don't believe Pu-238 can go critical, but still.... crazy shit can happen in space. Who knows. You should root against it though, since a second sun in our solar system means nothing good for Earth. Like... WW3 will be fighting for the deepest caves and mineshafts, LOL.
 
Burticus said:
Everyone slap on your aluminum foil hats and behold.... Project Lucifer!

https://www.universetoday.com/15905...cassini-turn-saturn-into-a-second-sun-part-1/

Short version... some believe that the 72 pounds of plutonium onboard Cassini (used for RTG / battery power) will go critical during the atmo entry to Saturn, causing a giant nuclear reaction which will ignite the atmosphere and turn Saturn into another sun. Yeah, good times. I've read both sides of the argument and I don't believe Pu-238 can go critical, but still.... crazy shit can happen in space. Who knows. You should root against it though, since a second sun in our solar system means nothing good for Earth. Like... WW3 will be fighting for the deepest caves and mineshafts, LOL.
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Saturn is 8-11x further away from the Earth than the Sun is at all times. Even if you could somehow light up one of the gas giants it would have no effect on Earth.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Saturn is 8-11x further away from the Earth than the Sun is at all times. Even if you could somehow light up one of the gas giants it would have no effect on Earth.
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PFFFTT your rational scientific thinking has no place here, sir! We're all gonna die! (eventually)
 
knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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That is some seriously narrow-minded, ignorant drivel right there. First, as others have said you know nothing of how these missions work, or why they'd actually do this. (Newsflash: Because of Cassini we now have evidence of at least two moons that could possibly support life.) Next: Yeah, let's just stop studying everything, let's shut down the LHC, close down the universities, because we don't need to learn about anything around us right?

I find it really odd that someone with this view of things would be hanging out on a site dedicated to technology.
 
DeathFromBelow said:
Saturn is 8-11x further away from the Earth than the Sun is at all times. Even if you could somehow light up one of the gas giants it would have no effect on Earth.
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Not to mention it's likely not massive enough to maintain any sort of fusion like a star or even a brown-dwarf to a lesser degree. There's probably more radiation coming out of Jupiter than a "lit up" Saturn would produce. (just a guess on my part, but...)
 
knowom said:
Caution beware of possibly contaminated space microbes near the uninhabitable Saturn wtf is the point in this "Grand Finale" I can't figure NASA out at all sometimes if they were concerned about space microbes they sure wasted plenty of tax payers money building and sending this contaminated POS to Saturn in the first place for a couple mediocre pictures of planet we have no clear logical reason to visit ever they sure love to piss money away into the empty vacuum of space oh yeah and drink it of course their favorite way to celebrate the "Grand Finale" to all our tax dollars wasted.
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Go pick your ass texting at a green light luddite shmuck. You're a waste of meat.
 
Jim Kim said:
The movie Life scared me to, I did not know that hollywood could produce such crap with a triple a cast.
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Neg. Not real sure what more you could expect or want from an alien movie with a bunch of scientists
 
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