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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
As was well publicized, the Cassini Saturn Orbiter was
deliberately crashed into the planet a couple of weeks ago. It's supply of maneuvering fuel was about exhausted and scientists didn't want to risk it "contaminating" one of Saturns interesting moons in a crash. But ... ya know ... the rest of the spacecraft was apparently in very good condition - the full array of scientific instruments still operational, and would have remained so for quite a long time to come. So ... don't tell me the clever people and AIs at the JPL couldn't have come up with a nice safe, essentially perpetual, orbit for the thing - maybe a wide orbit around Titan or just out between moons. The whole "contamination" thing was a pretty big reach as well ... Cassini was a relative fly-speck and space is chock-full of radiation FAR more intense than anything in its power pak. What we did was throw away a perfectly good long-term science/observation resource in the expensive-to-reach corner of our solar system. That was just STUPID. It was a huge waste of taxpayer money and a waste of an unknown quantity of useful information the thing could have been returning for decades if the power was properly managed. Let's NOT repeat such idiocy. NEVER throw away an asset. |
#2
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
I couldn't agree more !
The contamination issue would be totally laughable, if it wasn't so sad and ridiculous, but that's the official "reason". What a waste. It could have been parked in a stable orbit and made available for future science, historians, etc. |
#3
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 12:25:38 -0400, SteveGG
wrote: I couldn't agree more ! The contamination issue would be totally laughable, if it wasn't so sad and ridiculous, but that's the official "reason". What a waste. It could have been parked in a stable orbit and made available for future science, historians, etc. Hey, it's got some memory space onboard ... it could be instructed to save up periodic observations so every once in a while we could download the stash. Doesn't hurt to have an eye way "out there" either in case something interesting happens. The "contamination" thing is one of the worst excuses I've ever heard. MIGHT, under some circumstances, have some merit for Mars if we were worried about mold spores or whatever, but Saturn ... nah. A nice safe orbit was possible. I think somebody said "Hey, let's CRASH it into Saturn, that'd be like SO cool !" ... and there went a taxpayer gigabuck. Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. Policy CAN change. Gigabuck probes should not be considered part of a first-person-shooter game by JPL nerds. If it still mostly works, KEEP it around. |
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. What ?! Tell me it isn't true. Sanctimonius, evangelical, stupid turd ! Doesn't even believe in evolution. Universe is really only 6,000 years old, and was created in 7 days. All those fossils were put there by the devil to mislead man. God presides over everything and His thoughts and actions travel instantly across many millions of light years. Pence and all mankind were made in God's image and likeness ... |
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 14:31:33 -0400, SteveGG
wrote: Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. What ?! Tell me it isn't true. Sanctimonius, evangelical, stupid turd ! Doesn't even believe in evolution. Universe is really only 6,000 years old, and was created in 7 days. All those fossils were put there by the devil to mislead man. God presides over everything and His thoughts and actions travel instantly across many millions of light years. Pence and all mankind were made in God's image and likeness ... Hey, I voted for him ... because the alternative was even worse in its own way :-) Still, he's a conservative ... so appeal to the penny-pincher aspect you usually see with conservatives. Crashing Cassini was A BIG WASTE OF MONEY. I don't know if he thinks the universe is only 6000 years old, but he WILL understand WASTED $$$. BTW, most 'religious'/conservative people are NOT young-earth/no-evo ultra-fundies. The few that are tend to get all the press, makes them SEEM like a bigger bloc. Like viewing stars and planets, more local 'truths' often depend on what wavelength filter you view them through :-) |
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
"Mr. B1ack" wrote in message
... Still, he's a conservative ... so appeal to the penny-pincher aspect you usually see with conservatives. Crashing Cassini was A BIG WASTE OF MONEY. I don't know if he thinks the universe is only 6000 years old, but he WILL understand WASTED $$$. No, Cassini was well into bonus time ... the original mission was supposed to end in 2008. NASA tends to over-engineer ... Opportunity is closing in on 14 years on Mars ... a mission that was scheduled for 3 months. BTW, most 'religious'/conservative people are NOT young-earth/no-evo ultra-fundies. The few that are tend to get all the press, makes them SEEM like a bigger bloc. They tend to be loud about it. Like viewing stars and planets, more local 'truths' often depend on what wavelength filter you view them through :-) Speaking of which ... if you have the right combination of binoculars and darkness, you can try and see the planet Uranus ... a blue-green dot currently in the constellation of Pisces ... the first planet discovered after the Babylonians looked up. https://in-the-sky.org/skymap.php |
#7
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
Mr. B1ack wrote:
On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 12:25:38 -0400, SteveGG wrote: I couldn't agree more ! The contamination issue would be totally laughable, if it wasn't so sad and ridiculous, but that's the official "reason". What a waste. It could have been parked in a stable orbit and made available for future science, historians, etc. Hey, it's got some memory space onboard ... it could be instructed to save up periodic observations so every once in a while we could download the stash. Doesn't hurt to have an eye way "out there" either in case something interesting happens. How much memory do you think it has on board? How do you think we normally talk to it. It was already extended for NINE YEARS. The "contamination" thing is one of the worst excuses I've ever heard. MIGHT, under some circumstances, have some merit for Mars if we were worried about mold spores or whatever, but Saturn ... nah. A nice safe orbit was possible. Not Saturn. The moons. Which we might decide to inhabit some day. In some ways they're better than Mars. You can't just park it and forget about it. I think somebody said "Hey, let's CRASH it into Saturn, that'd be like SO cool !" ... and there went a taxpayer gigabuck. I think you should let someone else do the thinking. That's a preposterous notion. Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. Policy CAN change. Gigabuck probes should not be considered part of a first-person-shooter game by JPL nerds. If it still mostly works, KEEP it around. Policy CAN change but this one wouldn't have. A number of studies were done to figure out a 'safe' way to dispose of or park the thing. -- "Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory." --G. Behn |
#8
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
On Saturday, October 21, 2017 at 5:01:02 PM UTC-4, Fred J. McCall wrote:
Mr. B1ack wrote: Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. Policy CAN change. Gigabuck probes should not be considered part of a first-person-shooter game by JPL nerds. If it still mostly works, KEEP it around. Policy CAN change but this one wouldn't have. A number of studies were done to figure out a 'safe' way to dispose of or park the thing. The thruster fuel tank was almost empty. Once the fuel runs out there is no way to align the spacecraft so that its antenna can point to Earth, meaning that no data can be sent to and from Earth. So the spacecraft would effectively be dead. |
#9
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 14:00:58 -0700, Fred J. McCall
wrote: Mr. B1ack wrote: On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 12:25:38 -0400, SteveGG wrote: I couldn't agree more ! The contamination issue would be totally laughable, if it wasn't so sad and ridiculous, but that's the official "reason". What a waste. It could have been parked in a stable orbit and made available for future science, historians, etc. Hey, it's got some memory space onboard ... it could be instructed to save up periodic observations so every once in a while we could download the stash. Doesn't hurt to have an eye way "out there" either in case something interesting happens. How much memory do you think it has on board? How do you think we normally talk to it. It was already extended for NINE YEARS. We could get some useful stuff form it NINTEEN years from now. Why did we waste that opportunity ??? The Voyagers seemed useless relics too ... until we got all interested in the heliopause. Surprise, we had usable spacecraft in the vicinity because nobody'd bothered to crash them into anything. The "contamination" thing is one of the worst excuses I've ever heard. MIGHT, under some circumstances, have some merit for Mars if we were worried about mold spores or whatever, but Saturn ... nah. A nice safe orbit was possible. Not Saturn. The moons. Which we might decide to inhabit some day. In some ways they're better than Mars. You can't just park it and forget about it. How long have those moons been there ? Yes, we could have parked it and pretty much forgotten about it. And if grey aliens kicked it into a moon, so what ? It's a flyspeck. Those moons get bombarded with random galactic crap all the time. I think somebody said "Hey, let's CRASH it into Saturn, that'd be like SO cool !" ... and there went a taxpayer gigabuck. I think you should let someone else do the thinking. That's a preposterous notion. Um ... not so much actually ......... socialize with some tech-nerds for awhile and you'll see :-) Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. Policy CAN change. Gigabuck probes should not be considered part of a first-person-shooter game by JPL nerds. If it still mostly works, KEEP it around. Policy CAN change but this one wouldn't have. A number of studies were done to figure out a 'safe' way to dispose of or park the thing. It didn't need to be disposed of AT ALL. |
#10
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STUPID To Crash Cassini Probe
Mr. B1ack wrote:
On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 14:00:58 -0700, Fred J. McCall wrote: Mr. B1ack wrote: On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 12:25:38 -0400, SteveGG wrote: I couldn't agree more ! The contamination issue would be totally laughable, if it wasn't so sad and ridiculous, but that's the official "reason". What a waste. It could have been parked in a stable orbit and made available for future science, historians, etc. Hey, it's got some memory space onboard ... it could be instructed to save up periodic observations so every once in a while we could download the stash. Doesn't hurt to have an eye way "out there" either in case something interesting happens. How much memory do you think it has on board? How do you think we normally talk to it. It was already extended for NINE YEARS. We could get some useful stuff form it NINTEEN years from now. Why did we waste that opportunity ??? The Voyagers seemed useless relics too ... until we got all interested in the heliopause. Surprise, we had usable spacecraft in the vicinity because nobody'd bothered to crash them into anything. Because it was done. It had no fuel. The team supporting it already has more years of data to work with than they can handle. It was a hazard to other things in the Saturn system. DSN is a scarce resource and is needed for other things. I could go on. Voyager never went inactive and was always intended to keep going out. The "contamination" thing is one of the worst excuses I've ever heard. MIGHT, under some circumstances, have some merit for Mars if we were worried about mold spores or whatever, but Saturn ... nah. A nice safe orbit was possible. Not Saturn. The moons. Which we might decide to inhabit some day. In some ways they're better than Mars. You can't just park it and forget about it. How long have those moons been there ? Yes, we could have parked it and pretty much forgotten about it. And if grey aliens kicked it into a moon, so what ? It's a flyspeck. Those moons get bombarded with random galactic crap all the time. Congratulations on demonstrating that you don't know **** about orbital mechanics. No, you can't just 'park it and forget it'. And if you could, it quickly goes out of communication and you can't get it back again. And no, they don't get "bombarded with random galactic crap all the time" and what little they do get is not from Earth. I think somebody said "Hey, let's CRASH it into Saturn, that'd be like SO cool !" ... and there went a taxpayer gigabuck. I think you should let someone else do the thinking. That's a preposterous notion. Um ... not so much actually ......... socialize with some tech-nerds for awhile and you'll see :-) Well, actually, I AM a rocket scientist. The people doing this work are very different from your random semi-literate nerd friends. Hmm ... Pence is now nominally the top dog of the US space effort so it might not hurt to complain to him about this sort of thing. Policy CAN change. Gigabuck probes should not be considered part of a first-person-shooter game by JPL nerds. If it still mostly works, KEEP it around. Policy CAN change but this one wouldn't have. A number of studies were done to figure out a 'safe' way to dispose of or park the thing. It didn't need to be disposed of AT ALL. You're in denial of reality at this point. -- "Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory." --G. Behn |
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