On Sat, 03 Jul 2004 13:36:41 GMT, "Jon Kickerston"
wrote:

Still a difficult concept for me, I'm trying to understand the reason for
spending the large amounts of money for a probe like this. A few weeks ago,
I would have been dead set against something like this, but after the
numerous responses to my post against the space program, I have tried to
open my mind to a degree. So, here are my questions:

1) What has (or will) this entire Cassini project cost when everything is
completed? I understand that the probe took 7 years to reach Saturn, will
be there for a certain time, and eventually expire. So, the cost factor may
be estimated but even finding out what the cost has been up until now would
be sufficient.

2) Now this is tough for me: its purpose? So far, I see detailed pictures
being sent back and a few scientists addressing what we're seeing on those,
but what good will it be to learn about all of this? Ok, so gases and
convection all have their places in the universe and many of these patterns
have been simulated in the lab, so why go there?

The point of the aforementioned, at least in my mind, is the question of why
probably millions are being spent on this mission to find out the
composition of clouds, their rotation, etc. and maybe something more about
Titan, when such studies could have been better conducted here for a more
useful purpose.

Jon


There's more to life than money.