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Space Science

Cassini Alters Path. Phoebe Now In Sight! 186

Posted by timothy from the different-phoebe dept.
Anonymous Explorer writes "This week the Cassini-Huygens Spacecraft finally entered the Saturn system and made its first main-engine burn in five years in preparation of for the Phoebe flyby. This long journey has been one filled with much promise and peril. Launched in 1997, Cassini is expected to have a rendezvous with the moon Phoebe on June 11. For those of us who are lazy, that's just a tad under two weeks away. After the Phoebe flyby, it's on to the ringed planet, with an anticipated July 1 ground orbit insertion. The ESA's Huygens probe will descend into the atmosphere of Titan a few months after Cassini is inserted into orbit. This mission promises to be one that brings a very psychedelic and beautiful area of our solar system into clearer focus. This multinational mission is one the most ambitious scientific explorations yet undertaken and promises some truly otherworldly images in the near future. With 31 moons/natural satellites thus far discovered orbiting Saturn, there should be a lot to keep us occupied. Anyone else excited about the journey to a ringed world? Lets all enjoy this ride. It promises to be a unique one as much as for the scenery as for the science. Informal discussion regarding the Cassini-Huygens mission can be found at #cassini on irc.freenode.net."
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Cassini Alters Path. Phoebe Now In Sight! More

Cassini Alters Path. Phoebe Now In Sight!

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  • Whoooaaa (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    a very psychedelic and beautiful area of our solar system into clearer focus

    Heeeey man.. ::puff:: You don't need no stinkin' satellite.. ::puff:: in order to see psychedelic spaaace, maaaan! ::puff::

  • I'll be sure to tell my cat (Phoebe). . . (Score:4, Funny)

    by kfg ( 145172 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:48AM (#9288394)
    to keep her head down 'round about the 11th.

    She gets a little freaked when things flyby without warning (although I've rather been looking forward to it myself).

    I'm still trying to figure out though, why I, as the more massive of the pair, appear without question to be the captured object.

    KFG

    • DOOM (Score:2, Funny)

      by Dumbush ( 676200 )
      wow, we should build a base on Phoebe(call it UAL), do some time-altering research, and prepare for imp onslaught...

      By then, we better have BFG
    • Well, if you think of the contents of a cats litter box as the missing dark matter in the universe, you'll understand that cats are actually super-massive dark-matter factories.

      Hence, your belief in being the more massive of the two objects is incorrect. =)

  • Phoebe flyby (Score:3, Funny)

    by DrMrLordX ( 559371 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:51AM (#9288405)
    I predict they'll get some footage like this [sitcomsonline.com].

  • protests (Score:4, Interesting)

    by minus_273 ( 174041 ) <aaaaa@NOspam.SPAM.yahoo.com> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:52AM (#9288406) Journal
    while we are talking about Cassini, let us remember the protesters [grandmothersforpeace.org] who were so opposed to it. [cnn.com]
    Remember cassini is nasa's deadly space probe [animatedsoftware.com]. It is nice to see that these groups have other stuff to protest these days. Hope that stuff is not as deadly as cassini...

    • Al Sharpton (Score:1, Informative)

      by jayrtfm ( 148260 )
      Al Sharpton (2004 democratic presedential hopeful) led a protest in harlem at NASA's Goddard center.

    • Re:protests (Score:5, Interesting)

      by el-spectre ( 668104 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:49AM (#9288530) Journal
      That last link sure is a doozy. Gotta love people who panic over half-assed assessments and ad-hominem attacks.

      We've been using nukes in space for 30 years without significant problem. If we could have used them on MER, the damn things could run for years.

      This subject needs a Penn & Tellerish "Bullshit!" show :)
    • Current death toll from Amnesty International's actions in Nepal: 9000

      You want to give us the slightest shred of evidence for that?

      I hate unsubstative, emotional, unable to be backed up sigs. Especially stupid ones.

    • Seriously, though... You have to admit the opposition managed to put out some scary stuff... I saw it in the hallway at college and wasn't pleased. Got over it though.

    • risk (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hak1du ( 761835 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @04:03AM (#9288742) Journal
      Remember cassini is nasa's deadly space probe. It is nice to see that these groups have other stuff to protest these days. Hope that stuff is not as deadly as cassini...

      The protests were about a risk, that is, an accident that could have occurred with a certain probability. Everybody pretty much agreed that the risk of an accident was at least fairly low. What people disagreed on was the cost should such an accident acctually occur. The fact that a fairly low-risk event didn't occur does not tell you anything about whether it was prudent to engage in the activity in question.

      I'm sorry that such elementary scientific and economic concepts as "risk" and "cost" elude you. Without an understanding of those concepts, you are simply in no position to even participate in such debates.

      • Re:risk (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Xyrus ( 755017 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @10:00AM (#9289512) Journal
        I call troll.

        It seems that you don't understand the concepts of risk and probability.

        You never have a "certain probability". All you have is probability. Probability is a best guess in cases such as this since there are numerous factors to take into consideration.

        72 lbs. of plutonium re-entering the atmosphere BY ITSELF without shielding would cause insignificant damage at best. It would be vaporized and scattered in the upper atmosphere, where cosmic radiation would rapidly turn most particles into unstable elements that breakdown even faster.

        In fact, the chances of said particles reaching the surface of the earth is minimal. And even if it did, we are talking fractions of microcuries at best.

        BUT IT WILL DAMAGE THE ENVIRONMENT! 36 kg of plutonium vs. 6.14X10^24 kg of Earth? With the way people make radiation sound, you'd think it was magical death wraith just waiting to be set loose on the poor undefended Earth.

        And while we're talking about probabilities, I think you should be more concerned with your fellow drivers than an errant space probe. You're far more likely to die in a car crash than any sort of radioactive accident, least of all from a space probe.

        To put it in perspective, you have a risk when you take a shower in the morning. There's a risk that you could slip, crak your head and die. The risk is small, but it's there. Does this mean you shouldn't take showers? Do you do a risk/cost analysis everytime you step in the shower? Do you have life insurance, a will, savings, etc. for anyone left behind? Do you estimate how much a funeral will cost? What taxes will be due? How much lawyers will cost? What about your job? The cost it would take to replace you? The list goes on. And this is all just based on you taking a shower.

        Do you trully know your risk/cost? I doubt it. It's not possible to know all the repercussions of your demise because no one can predict the future. If you were smart though, you would be prepared as you could be for such a thing and you'd go on living your life and taking showers.

        You're just one person. NASA has hundreds who run computer simulations, analysis, environmental impacts, emergency scenarios, etc. . The probe was launched in 1997, but they were probably testing the hell out of it for at least a decade. And NASA has been doing this since the 60's.

        They are not infalliable, but they have numbers to back up their claims. And I would take a 100 scientist recommendation over an elitest snob.

        ~X~

        • My point was, clearly stated, that people generally agreed that the probability of an event was low, even people who opposed the Cassini launch. Therefore, absence of an event does not prove, as the post implied, that the launch was low risk because the event itself was low probability.

          Beyond that, you are just reiterating the usual arguments that the risk was low. I happen to agree with that. But arguing, as the original poster implied, that absence of deaths resulting from the Cassini launch suggests

        • Re:risk (Score:3, Informative)

          by hak1du ( 761835 )
          You never have a "certain probability".

          Sure you do. The expression just means "some well-defined but unknown probability value" and suggests it is different from zero. It's common usage in statistics and stochastics. Search on Google for examples (about 19300 of them).
      • What people disagreed on was the cost should such an accident acctually occur.

        I heartily agree about the risk/cost issues. The Cassini Probe [flosat.be] was worth $1.5 billion before launch [gpnj.org]. Now that it's been taken out of the package, the value to collectors will go WAY down. As anybody who collects pristine government space probes knows, once you turn it on, it's never like new again. And you know that nodoby's gonna put out another limited edition big science probe [techdirections.com] like Cassini.

        I mean, how can all that knowle
    • Of course they have other things to protest about these days. Weren't their concern that it would blow up before leaving Earth, along with its 60 pounds of plutonium-238? I agree they're crazy though if they still think Cassini is a concern.

    • Re:protests (Score:4, Funny)

      by PalmerEldritch42 ( 754411 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:33AM (#9289225)
      Plutonium is commonly referred to as "the deadliest substance known to man" and for good reason.

      That is great. I hadn't heard that common referral before, so I googled the quote. Just to check their facts. I did the I Feel Lucky search. Lo and behold, I did find an article about the deadliest substance known to man. Apparently, it is not plutonium as is commonly referred. It is in fact dihydrogen monoxide [heraldguide.com]

  • Well... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ErichTheWebGuy ( 745925 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:52AM (#9288409) Homepage
    This mission promises to be one that brings a very psychedelic

    Guess the mission engineers took the brown acid. Bummer.

    • Re:Well... (Score:5, Funny)

      by kfg ( 145172 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:33AM (#9288503)
      Guess the mission engineers took the brown acid.

      "Gimme an Ph!"

      And it's one, two, three, what's this Cassini for?
      Don't ask me I don't really care,
      I suppose just 'cause Titan's there

      And it's five, six, seven, open up the pod bay doors.
      There ain't no time to wonder why,
      Whoopee! It's a Phoebe flyby.

      KFG

      • ROFL! Well done, nice filk!

        and the images from Cassini will no doubt induce shock and awe among us pointy-headed types :) (well, Voyager certainly did...)

        SB

  • water on earth (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:54AM (#9288412)
    And though there is no liquid water, what water does on Earth, methane does on Titan.
    Do the Saturnians drink eight glasses of methane a day?

  • Images (Score:5, Informative)

    by Whitecloud ( 649593 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:58AM (#9288420) Homepage
    some cool images and data:
    Map and Images of Titan [arizona.edu] from Hubble Space Telescope
    Nasa Titan Photojournal [nasa.gov]
    Saturnian Satellite Fact Sheet [nasa.gov]
    Phoebe [space.com] best image so far, from Voyager2 in 1981!

  • Photographic mission (Score:5, Informative)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:09AM (#9288449) Journal
    It's gonna be nice to see a photo-intensive orbiting mission to one of the big gas giants. The Galileo orbiter for Jupiter had an antenna problem that greatly reduced the imaging volume.

    However, based on Voyager flybys, Saturn's moons are not quite as photogenic as Jupiter's. Titan is covered with a thick feature-poor haze and most of the other moons are too small to have many of the interesting tidally-caused features of the Jupiter moons. But there are still some interesting features on some of the moons.

    And, Cassini will drop a probe into Titan's atmosphere that should return some interesting images and data. Titan may have a methane ocean and the Titan probe may possibly land in it and float for a few hours. The ocean may have giant waves because the gravity is so weak compared to Earth, similar to the way that sand-dunes are easier to make on Mars because of the lower gravity there. Things can get taller and weirder under low gravity. It would be the first time liquid could be seen from the surface of another world (aside from the Apollo Tang drippings).

    • Re:Photographic mission (Score:5, Informative)

      by deglr6328 ( 150198 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @02:23AM (#9288584)
      Photographic indeed. Take a look at the DISR [arizona.edu] page that details the optics and detectors that are aboard the Huygens probe. There are even some test images [arizona.edu] taken with the flight spare that give an idea of the images to be returned from the surface of Titan (sans palm trees perhaps). Huygens is expected to relay ~175 MBytes of data through Cassini and back to Earth for a nominal mission, this is almost 500 TIMES the total data returned from the Galileo atmospheric probe!! There are many other experimental devices attached to the bottom of the probe which are beautifully elegant in design that will tell us about just what it hits when it gets to the surface ice...liquid hydrocarbons...etc. The surface science package also contains a piezoelectric transducer to determine the depth of the ocean it may land in using sonar pulses. It can measure the height of waves on the surface with its accelerometers and the density of the liquid with a refractometer to determine the liquid's index of refraction. The amount and quality of information retured from the dim frigid surface of this strange world hundreds of millions of miles away will be positively awe inspiring.
      • There are many other experimental devices attached to the bottom of the probe which are beautifully elegant in design that will tell us about just what it hits when it gets to the surface ice...liquid hydrocarbons...etc

        I would love to see NASA slap a standard interface on the back of these devices. A standard probe framework would be nice too.

        Then anybody could just grab a NASA catalouge and order up a probe for their X Prize launch.

        I mean, many of these sensor systems were on the bleeding edge of desi
      • Of course, you just know it's going to land on an island. :)

        Though I hope it doesn't.

    • Re:Photographic mission (Score:2, Informative)

      by canavan ( 14778 )
      the Titan probe may possibly land in it and float for a few hours.

      It may float for an eternity, but its batteries will run out only a few (possibly ony three, depending on how long the trip through the atmosphere lasts) minutes after the impact/splashdown. See the mission timeline on the esa webpage [esa.int].
    • One of the interesting items in a previous Cassini press release [nasa.gov] is that Hubble's cameras and optics are so good that Cassini had to get a billion-with-a-b miles closer to Saturn before its photographs could compare.

      Of course, it will get even closer and do much more that take picture, but I thought that said a lot for the Hubble.

  • I've been waiting for this... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by rice_burners_suck ( 243660 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:13AM (#9288456)
    Informal discussion regarding the Cassini-Huygens mission can be found at #cassini on irc.freenode.net.

    I more than half expected the channel to be Slashdotted, as happens to all websites when their address is mentioned here. But strangely, there are only about ten people over there right now.

    On another note, I am very excited about the upcoming part of this mission. I was finishing high school when they launched this thing, and when they talked about it, it seemed like it would be forever before that thing reached Saturn. Needless to say, it has been a lot less than forever.

    I wish the fine engineers at Nasa the best of luck in accomplishing this portion of the mission.

  • Ummm (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mog007 ( 677810 ) <[Mog007] [at] [gmail.com]> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:14AM (#9288458)
    After the Phoebe flyby, it's on to the ringed planet

    All the gas giants have rings, not just Saturn. They're not as easy to see, but they have been detected.

    • Re:Ummm (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      When someone says "look at the fat woman", do you correct them with "there are several women in this room who appear to be overweight" or do you just look at the huge wobbling blob of a woman to whom they are clearly referring?

      Everyone knows which one is the "ringed planet". If one of the outer planets is slightly red-tinged will you object to us calling Mars the "red planet" ?

  • Beauty is important (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tri0de ( 182282 ) <dpreynld@pacbell.net> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:21AM (#9288475) Journal
    IMHO quality images do more to create and maintain public enthusiasm for space exploration than all the statistics in the world about the benefits of the space program; far too many geeks and/or scientists underestimate and underutilize the best of all marketing tools we have for getting funding and support for the space program. I hope they don't forget about the value of a pretty picture.

    • Hubble Heritage (Score:5, Informative)

      by Cuprous ( 74856 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:47AM (#9288527)
      I think astronomers realize the importance of beauty when trying to get public support. Check out the Hubble Heritage [stsci.edu] project. The main reason for this project is to take pretty astronomy pictures [stsci.edu].

    • Re:Beauty is important (Score:5, Interesting)

      by deglr6328 ( 150198 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @02:44AM (#9288626)
      Judging from previous releases from the imaging team(CICLOPS [arizona.edu], they seem to be a very, very competent bunch. During the Jupiter flyby 4 years ago, they used the spare seconds between scheduled observations to take extra images of Jupiter in true color which they then stitched together later to form the highest detailed full planet image of Jupiter ever taken [nasa.gov]. With Cassini actually passing through a gap in the inner rings during its orbit insertion it's hard to imaging the spectacular images that await us.

      • With Cassini actually passing through a gap in the inner rings during its orbit insertion it's hard to imaging the spectacular images that await us.

        I'm sorry, but goatse.cx has made it impossible to utter phrases like that without a collective cringing. The only way you could have made that more mentally disturbing is if this were a mission to Uranus.

    • Re:Beauty is important (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Absolutely. The people crave the bread and plays, and pretty pictures from space.

      Some European space scientist said that space exploration is necessary for a society for the same reason an art gallery is.

  • lazy people first (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 2004 @01:34AM (#9288505)
    Cassini is expected to have a rendezvous with the moon Phoebe on June 11. For those of us who are lazy, that's just a tad under two weeks away.

    Does this mean that those of us who are not lazy have to wait a few more weeks before we can learn about Phoebe's observations?
    • Does this mean that those of us who are not lazy have to wait a few more weeks...
      this is slashdot. i think the author was assuming that "people reading this and not lazy" was the null set. ;-)

  • hrm. (Score:3, Funny)

    by abscondment ( 672321 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @02:38AM (#9288613) Homepage

    its first main-engine burn in five years

    This, as we all know, is the spaceship equivalent of a middle aged man gettin' some for the first time in a long while.

    • Re:hrm. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by applemasker ( 694059 )
      Maybe it was more like just testing the plumbing.

      This burn was only for 56 seconds, (insert joke here), and changed Cassini's velocity by about 78 mph.

      June 30 is the real show when Cassini performs its orbit insertion burn for over 90 minutes, resulting in a delta-v change of in the area of 1,400 mph.

      What's remarkable is that because of the distance between Earth and Saturn, there is an hour and 20 minute lag, so Cassini is pretty much on its own for this (and most other) maneuvers.

  • Reporting as ordered -- (Score:3, Funny)

    by Buran ( 150348 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @02:40AM (#9288617)
    Planet Druidia's in sight, sir!

  • Its amazing. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by dj245 ( 732906 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @03:15AM (#9288683) Homepage
    Does anyone else think its amazing that the thing actually works after five years of no activity? Seriously, I wouldn't trust my router, cable modem, or toaster (all devices of comparable embedded computing power) to run nonstop for five years. I think it speaks well for the Nasa engineers, and the things they actually do right. Its a shame only their mistakes make the news.

    • Re:Its amazing. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by VanillaCoke420 ( 662576 ) <vanillacoke420@h ... l.com minus poet> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @03:21AM (#9288693)
      Amazing indeed, but they can do even better. Just look at the Voyager spacecrafts, they've been out there since the 70's and the reason they will be shut down within a few years is because they're running out of power, rather than hardware failure or something. Now imagine a much faster spaceprobe with an actual reactor onboard. Could last for a century or more? This is why I think the Prometeus and the JIMO projects are great.
    • It's not so amazing if you think about it. NASA spends enormous resources on reliability. Your router, cable modem, and toaster are all mass-produced at more or less the lowest possible cost, with no redundancy, and often with built-in obsolescence in mind.

  • wonderful (Score:4, Interesting)

    by VanillaCoke420 ( 662576 ) <vanillacoke420@h ... l.com minus poet> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @03:26AM (#9288703)
    Can't believe how much I'm looking forward to this. It's going to be exciting to learn more about the rings (especially the F-rings perhaps), Saturn itself and then the landing on Titan. It's a good thing there are so many mysteries out there, or the world would be a bit boring.

  • Approaching Phoebe (Score:3, Funny)

    by payndz ( 589033 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @03:59AM (#9288738)
    It's a bit late for that now, isn't it? She already married Mike, and then the series ended!

    "Smelly probe, sme-elly probe..."

    (Unless it's the other Phoebe. Meh, she does nothing for me. Wake me up when the probe approaches Piper.)

    • Yeah, this whole mission is so 1997. ;-)
    • It's a bit late for that now, isn't it? She already married Mike, and then the series ended!
      "Smelly probe, sme-elly probe..."

      Now it's on Planet Joey to bring 'Drina back to life!

      (Unless it's the other Phoebe. Meh, she does nothing for me. Wake me up when the probe approaches Piper.)

      Paging Paige....

  • How does one orbit a ringed planet? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ruarl ( 766450 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @04:12AM (#9288759)
    Given that the rings are made up of lumps of rock and ice, how do you avoid them? Will Cassini orbit inside the rings? Outside? Or does it have a bulldozer plough on the front to just barge it's way through?

    • Re:How does one orbit a ringed planet? (Score:5, Informative)

      by applemasker ( 694059 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @06:54AM (#9288994)
      Although one of the Voyager probes [nasa.gov] whizzed through Saturn's ring plane (which is only about a km or so thick), no such daring maneuver is planned for Cassini.

      There is a preliminary plot of Cassini's possible orbital tour here [nasa.gov]. According to it, Cassini will make around 69 orbits during its planned mission. Note that one of Cassini's primary targets, Titan, orbits at around 40 Saturn radii, well outside the rings.

      Oh, and, look for all the pretty pictures from Cassini to be posted over at CICLOPS [arizona.edu] (Cassini Imaging Central Laboratory for Operations).

      • Oops, that's Iapetus that orbits at 60 Saturn radii, Titan is about 20 radii.

        I haven't heard or read about any ring-crossing, so I am assuming not b/c it seems like a bad idea to take a multibillion dollar probe through a rock garden where the rocks are flying at a few kilometers a second. If anyone knows different though, I'd be interested though.

        Sorry about the self-reply.

      • Re:How does one orbit a ringed planet? (Score:5, Informative)

        by bluemartian ( 782702 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @09:25AM (#9289383)
        Actually, Cassini will pass through Saturn's rings [nasa.gov] twice during orbital insertion. Although it will be "driving" through one of the gaps between rings, it will still be going directly through the ring plane.

      • misinformed mods (Score:4, Informative)

        by barakn ( 641218 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:46PM (#9290335)
        Although one of the Voyager probes whizzed through Saturn's ring plane (which is only about a km or so thick), no such daring maneuver is planned for Cassini.

        The ring plane extends out to infinity, and so even the Earth passes through it occasionally. The ring plane is considerably tilted with respect to the ecliptic, so it would have been impossible for the Voyagers to not pass through the ring plane. Both went well outside the rings, not, as you imply, through the rings (In Saturn radii: closest approaches V1=3.09 & V2=2.67, outer ring lies at ~2.3) Someone has already pointed out your misinformation about the Cassini orbit. Your links are interesting, but none support your assertions.

  • Kudos to the mapmaker (Score:5, Insightful)

    by waterbear ( 190559 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @04:15AM (#9288766)
    "first main-engine burrn in five years"

    [only a] 78 mph change in speed

    One thing that comes out again here, but only by implication, from these reports, is the amazing accuracy and precision (still amazing to me anyhow) of the ephemerides (~ solar system maps) used to plan these missions. They knew where Mars would be for MER to within, what, was it about a meter or two? Maybe not that close for Saturn but still good enough not to need main-engine course corrections in five years ...

    Kudos to the chief JPL mapmaker Dr Myles Standish and his crew!

    -wb-
    • Bob Farquhar [wired.com] is the man that turns it into an art. He invented double lunar swingby, necessary for economicaly using gravity to get to other planets.

      "It was no coincidence Farquhar had visited his first wife's grave that morning [the date of the main engine burn to decelerate]; December 20 was Bonnie Farquhar's birthday. January 10, 1999, the day the spacecraft was due at Eros, was the fifth anniversary of his civil marriage to his second wife, Irina. The mission's nominal completion date, February 6, 2000

  • What? We call this news? (Score:3, Funny)

    by halivar ( 535827 ) <bfelger@gmai l . com> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @08:18AM (#9289175)
    Wake me up when we plant a flag on Jupiter.
  • With 31 moons/natural satellites thus far discovered orbiting Saturn, there should be a lot to keep us occupied. Anyone else excited...

    Excited? Pictures of Phoebe? 31 moons?

    When do they get pictures of Rachel? That would be some moon! I like that one better than Phoebe, at least to look at, but Phoebe is more entertaining to listen to. You can skip Ross, Joey and Chandler but take a few of Monica mooning while you're at it. That will get me excited :).

  • Anyone else excited ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ralconte ( 599174 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @11:41AM (#9289937)
    ... about the journey to a ringed Apparantly not, we're having the same old discussion about that hazards it posed for having a nuclear power source, and dumb jokes about a character on a defunt sitcom. Perhaps it would save some bandwith on /. if mods just decided to forgo future Cassini stories. Those who want to see the pictures know where to go.

  • Saturn history (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 30, 2004 @12:29PM (#9290246)
    For those of you interested in Saturn's larger roll in the formation of our solar system, check out this site. Lots to read, but pretty interesting:

    http://www.jnocook.net/saturn/

  • Things like this are among the things that move our entire world forward. Maybe not as big as landing on the moon within ten or anything...but, we are about to plunge a highly sensitive instrument into the atmosphere of a moon that is a solid distance away. It amazes me sometimes what we as a race are able to create and act upon. Our thoughts coming to fruition. This is the type of advance that could show us life. As I have said before...that time when we do discover and know of the existence of a growing

  • Shadows (Score:3, Interesting)

    by l0wland ( 463243 ) <l0wland&yahoo,com> on Sunday May 30, 2004 @02:59PM (#9291184) Journal
    Just out of curiousity: The pics show that the rings cast shadows on the surface of Saturn. I wonder what it would look like if you were on the surface of Saturn, and would be in an area covered by ring-shadow. Is the light just more dim, or would it be completely dark? And would the rings be visible through the atmosphere (in both shadow or light)?

    Hmmm how about an artist-impression of that... :-)

  • #cassini Chat available to all... (Score:4, Informative)

    by pandelirium ( 709326 ) on Sunday May 30, 2004 @03:53PM (#9291469) Homepage

    We have a room on the irc.freenode.net servers called #cassini which is available to all who are interested in the Cassini [nasa.gov] project. Here you will find a wide range of interests discussed, from the informal to the most scientific details of the mission. Some of the Cassini staff have shown interest in participating to further support the project's public interest so don't be surprized to meet them there.

    We also support the ' Maestro [telascience.org] ' program which is the Public-Outreach software [telascience.org] created for the Mars Exploration Rover Project [nasa.gov] from JPL [nasa.gov]. As a result, we helped maintain the #maestro room (also on freenode.net) which is still in operation today.

    With such high interest building as Cassini-Huygens [nasa.gov] approaches orbital insertion and the Phoebe flyby, we expect a bigger rush in the next weeks. Join in and share the experience!

    If you are not sure how to do 'IRC' there are many good primers [irchelp.org] online to help and you can visit http://freenode.net [freenode.net] for details about connecting as well as links to assist you to set things up to chat online.

    See all "/.'ers" there... ;^)

    Pandelirium
    http://www.pandelirium.net [pandelirium.net] irc.freenode.net
    #cassini
    #maestro
    #pandelirium

  • The submission isn't really wrong, 5-6 months could still be considered a 'few' months but the Huygens probe [nasa.gov] won't be released until December, 2004, and won't reach Titan until January, 2005.

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