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Goodbye Cassini
Long in the planning, brilliant in execution & expertly disposed of. | |
If you want inspiration for what the human race can achieve, then look towards the rings of Saturn for the next few moments & ponder the brilliance of the people who planned, financed, built, launched & disposed of the Cassini-Huygens probes.
[marked-for-expiry]
Farewell to Cassini
http://www.bbc.co.u...s/magazine-41259524
BBC slideshow of the mission history. [DrBob, Sep 15 2017]
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Annotation:
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Sending out probes (Voyager, Cassini, etc.) is the
boldest and most visionary thing the human race has
done, and a useful reminder that sometimes we can
resemble an advanced civilisation. |
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I followed the NASA feed for the last few moments & when they finally called it, I felt disturbingly emotional. Not a very British feeling at all. I may have to seek medical advice.
;o)
PS: You are such a philistine, Mr Tindale. Somebody should beat you with a stick! |
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// when they finally called it, I felt disturbingly emotional. Not a very British feeling at all. I may have to seek medical advice. // |
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Do not distress thyself, Cassini is safe in one of our cargo bays. |
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At the last possible second, we transported it on board and replaced it with a couple of scrap school buses welded together, with the same mass, momentum and trajectory. |
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After your species destroys itself, it'll be worth a fair bit, 'cos "they ain't makin' 'em no more" ... |
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// You are such a philistine, Mr Tindale. // |
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He's worse than that; he's from London. |
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Actually, the Philistines got rather a bad press, because the Hebrews wrote the history. There is actually no objective evidence that they were worse than any other tribal grouping present in the area at the time. |
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// Somebody should beat you with a stick! // |
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Do you see that long line of people over there ? The ones all holding various unpleasant-looking blunt instruments ? |
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Do you see how the line goes round that corner and reappears a few streets down, then continues out of sight ? |
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If you go over and ask them what they're queueing for, they'll tell you "Waiting to hit Ian Tindale with a stick". |
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The ones near the front of the line are actually the children or grandchildren of the original queue members, who have inherited their spot. |
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//sometimes we can resemble an advanced civilisation// |
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An advanced civilisation would be able to go and fetch them
back when the job was done. |
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That sounds more poetic but I think "Goodbye" is probably
more appropriate for something that just burned up in a
planet's atmosphere. It ain't faring too well. Just sayin'. |
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Addio Cassini? (That's the dramatic Italian word for goodbye,
like when you're never going to see the person again.) |
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Did we have to say goodbye? Could there have been some archaeological/time capsule discovery made when we finally caught up with the probe? Stick in a slow leave or a Lagrange point for rediscovery.
Thanks to the teams and their efforts, though. Humanity is richer. |
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Why was it not allowed to simply drift off? |
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Because it might have impacted on Europa or some other moon, and we don't want to contaminate environments that might harbour life. |
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Life ? There's nothing there. It's a bleak, miserable, freezing dump, a sort of orbiting Milton Keynes. |
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//we don't want to contaminated environments that might harbour life.// What a pity that same caring attitude is not adopted here on earth where there is life. |
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// here on earth where there is life // |
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... but not, alas, intelligent life ... |
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Don't you mean Enceladus, [MB]? |
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And becoming one with Saturn is not necessarily a bad fate
for a machine whose whole raison d'etre was focussed on
the Saturn system, so I think it is "farewell". |
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//Why was it not allowed to simply drift off?// |
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To add to what [Max] said, it didn't have enough kinetic energy or fuel to
escape from Saturn's gravity well. It wasn't possible to let it "drift off" in
the same way the Pioneer / Voyager / New Horizons probes are doing;
it was doomed to stay close to Saturn forever, from the moment it
arrived. |
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// doomed to stay close to Saturn forever // |
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Well, there are worse things .... at least there's a spectacular view to enjoy. |
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Ah yes, Enceladus indeed. Thank you, [19thly]. |
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Everyone knows there aren't any Black Monoliths on or near Saturn. |
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Does that Enchilada planet have a ring of fries orbiting it? |
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Maybe there are lakes of guacamole? - Quick - build
another wall, before the Mexicans find out. |
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// caused by dusty objects in interplanetary space. // |
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Hence the desperate need for more female astronauts ... lots if
cleaning up to do out there. |
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<suddenly recalls received wisdom about women having no sense
of humour, dives into bomb shelter, frantically piles sandbags in
doorway > |
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