NASA Deep Space 1 Mission Is Over

Ashran writes "The Nasa DS1 site has the blurb: 'With highly successful primary, extended, and hyperextended missions behind it, the Deep Space 1 mission is over. The spacecraft continues to function, but engineers held a bittersweet retirement party for the veteran explorer today. The guest of honor was, of course, unable to attend because of travel commitments.'"

I feel sad in a small way

[arkham6]

I was living in florida at the time it was launched, and myself and some friends of mine took an impromptu trip to go see the launch. It was a very cloudy morning, but man, even still it was an awsome experience. The light from the rocket was very bright, so much that you had to shield your eyes, and the sound, even from five miles away was so loud it shook your chest. If you ever get the chance to see a launch, go for it. It is worth seeing.

It was retired last year!

[David Frankenstein]

Guys, read the page more closely, or go to here [nasa.gov]. DS1 was retired in 2001!

Re:It was retired last year!

[Hard_Code]

Does this mean we'll have a space station outside a wormwhole by 2009?

The date on the page is dynamic....

[jsimon12]

The date on the page referanced in the Slashdot article is dynamic, it displays whatever todays date it. And you are correct, this occured one year ago today.

Did anyone read the log before posting?

[jsimon12]

This message was logged at 2:45 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, December 18.

Uhhh, unless there is a magic time machine involved this time hasn't occured yet, as for Tuesday, hmmmm would tell me it probably happened last year, as the 18th falls on a Wednesday in 2002 ;)

Re:Did anyone read the log before posting?

[Ashran]

I just wanted to get a story posted and since most stories on slashdot are either really old or dupes I thought I'll try it with this one ;)

No honestly I didnt notice it was a year old and I should have listened to the voices inside my head screaming "DEJA VU" .. and not write it off as some wierd Acid flashback /winke

This article is almost exactly one year old!

[Tye_Informer]

Is that the news. "This message was logged at 2:45 pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, December 18." That was last year, and they considered "an ultraextended mission, which would have targeted an encounter in August 2002 with an asteroid tantalizingly named 1999 KK1" but didn't.

So the news is A year ago we finished this mission... Well Congrats again, I guess.

Maudlin'

[m_evanchik]

Reading that farewell brought to mind the first Star Trek movie, the one where a Voyager probe is recovered by an alien robot society and comes back to earth.

When Slashdot had the, "Which was the best Star Trek movie?" poll up recently, I thought they should have the put that first movie up for consideration. While it had it's failings, at least it didn't degenerate into the Space Westerns of the rest of the series.

With all the attention given to technical details of physic and engineering, with DS1, it was also human love and curiousity that ultimately drove it as much as its ion drive.

Re:Maudlin'

[DonFinch]

you know, its funny how people gripe about star trek being "space westerns" when Gene Roddenberry origionally sold the idea as "Wagon Train to the stars." Quit demanding deep epic meaning and just be entertained.

Re:Maudlin'

[EvilBudMan]

Although offtopic:

The second one was the best pure and simple. The first one was very slow paced to say the least.

What about DS9?

IN SOVIET RUSSIA

[Anonymous Coward]

One year old story posts YOU!

Re:IN SOVIET RUSSIA

[boy_afraid]

Yeah, the KGB finds the posts, arrests you, and sends you to prision in Siberia.

A year old notwithstanding

[Trane Francks]

In light of several posts made regarding several space-exploration-related articles in recent weeks, I thought this comment was particularly insightful:

Now with no further technology objectives and no further science objectives, there is not sufficient justification for keeping the spacecraft operating.

In the comments posted regarding the recent space-station article, for example, several posters alleged that NASA simply chooses to throw good money after bad. The italicized quote from the above-linked article indicates that just isn't reality. When the science for a particular project is complete and no further useful information can be gleaned, the project is abandoned.

This continues to give me hope for the space program. As much as the penny pinchers do have a say over things, the scientists still obviously manage to make good decisions and carry through with them.

What I don't understand is

[teamhasnoi]

how that guy from "Benson" is going to live long enough to be on DS9...

Controlling abandoned space probes?

[sploxx]

Hmm, do anyone also think that all these abandoned space probes out there are a big waste of resources? I'm curious if there is any initiative which wants to control & support all these old machines... They're flying out there, wouldn't that be a good opportunity for e.G. rich ham radio activists (building these big dish antennas that are required for the uplink to the space craft...)? Maybe other antenna types being developed (phased array etc.) could do the job. Has anyone a pointer to such an initiative? Does one exist? This would boost the interesting in unmanned space exploration, I think...