Cassini-Huygens Saturn Orbit Insertion Imminent

Anonymous Explorer writes "Fresh off of its fly-by with the Saturnian satellite Phoebe, the Cassini-Huygens craft is set for Saturn Orbit Insertion on June 30, 2004. Cassini-Huygens has a planned four year mission ahead for Saturn and its many moons. With 450 watts of power for the electronics, this mission has plenty enough horses to run the stretch with plenty-o-pep to spare. Thanks to all that power, and the plethora of electronics on Cassini and the Huygens probe, we can now hear sounds from Saturn. Pretty cool stuff! Festivities are scheduled to begin on June 29th with a broadcast of Cassini Saturn Orbit Insertion Press Conference on Nasa TV. SOI [PDF link] will occur after Cassini fires its main engine for 96 minutes, in order to slow down and be grabbed by the pull of Saturn. As always we extend an invitation to everyone to join #cassini on irc.freenode.net and help us celebrate this historic mission."

450 watts?

[sirboxalot]

I have the same amount of power in my computer's power supply. Something seems fundamentally wrong with that.

Sounds of Martian Life?!!

[dukeluke]

Wow - does that mean we can actually hear and thus potentialy decipher and understand what the martians are saying in their native tongue on the Red Planet?? -- Perhaps we can master the language so that when they come to visit us - we'll understand that they're saying "Don't Feed the Humans" rather than "Eat them!"

Re:450 watts?

[umrgregg]

Damnit! When I sent in my fabrication designs I told them that they needed to run at least 1.21 gigawatts through the flux capacitor to uh... Well, that's... Nevermind.

Horses?

[birdwax2k]

...this mission has plenty enough horses to run the stretch with plenty-o-pep to spare.

Lets hope none of them are named Smarty Jones...

Re:450 watts?

[falzer]

> Something seems fundamentally wrong with that.

Like watt?

a little over half a horse

[missing000]

0.60345994 HP to be exact :) [google.com]

Slashdot NASA Early

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Beat the rush.

I Wonder...

[grunt107]

Do the rings make the same noise represented on the Star Trek Voyager intro?

After this insertion...

[teamhasnoi]

on to Uranus!

Here, I'll help you out.

-1, Troll.

sounds?

[rgf71]

I'd much rather hear the sounds of Saturn than the sounds of Uranus.

Sorry. Had to do it.

Insertion Imminent

[Timesprout]

Alas the only other time geeks encounter this situation is when they plug in a new video card.

Sounds from Saturn?

[IGnatius T Foobar]

Hearing sounds from Saturn is nothing new. My 1997 SL1 (like most old Saturns) is VERY noisy ... you can hear it coming from a mile away. Step on the gas and it sounds like the power steering pump is going to pop through the hood.

Re:I Wonder...

[ebh]

I suspect it's a few clanking and crunching sounds followed by static...

Re:Victory of SCIENCE over ECOIDIOLOGY

[Mz6]

"The problem is that we live in a world that is only willing to offer 30 seconds of attention about any subject at a time."

What are you talking about? It's not like the entire World has ADD or some... Hey, what's that shiny thing over there?

Re:Sounds of Martian Life?!!

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Hey, Americans have a hard enough time finding Canada on a map. Other planets are WAY beyond that.

/Yes, I'm hitting on my own gang

Re:Victory of SCIENCE over ECOIDIOLOGY

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Where do we have to go now to enjoy a nice clean refreshing vacuum?

I dunno, the appliance section of [insert retail store]?

Re:Not even 0.5kilowatts..

[Auntie Virus]

I started building one, but the friggin neighbors complained again...

The Song of Saturn At Last!

[MooseByte]

"Thanks to all that power, and the plethora of electronics on Cassini and the Huygens probe, we can now hear sounds from Saturn."

Not to mention that giant space phonograph needle they included at the last minute. Now we just have to have it doesn't skip on the Cassini Division.

(Append witty RIAA reference here.)

Nah, they did it two days early

[Limburgher]

They figured if they entered orbit two days before the scheduled date, they could avoid attacks by the Saturni insurgents.

Re:Not even 0.5kilowatts..

[Tenebrious1]

70m antennas are bigger that you might expect.

What, like 75 meters?

Re:Insertion Imminent

[Fishstick]

<farnsworth>Scientists renamed Uranus in 2024 in order to finally stop all those stupid jokes...

what did they name it?

Urectum!</farnsworth>

Let the orbital insertion begin...

[Titchener]

wakka-chikka-wakka-chikka "Hello Saturn, I'm Cassini-Huygens. I'm here to repair your plumbing."

The real reason for the mission

[fedork]

we all know that _real_ reason for this mission is to deliver a piece of metal to an alien stuck on Titan.

Re:I can't wait...

[GedConk]

Talking about Venus, I heard she's HOT ! ;)