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Goodbye Cassini

Long in the planning, brilliant in execution & expertly disposed of.
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If you want inspiration for what the human race can achieve, then look towards the rings of Saturn for the next few moments & ponder the brilliance of the people who planned, financed, built, launched & disposed of the Cassini-Huygens probes.

[marked-for-expiry]
DrBob, Sep 15 2017

Farewell to Cassini http://www.bbc.co.u...s/magazine-41259524
BBC slideshow of the mission history. [DrBob, Sep 15 2017]

[link]






       Sending out probes (Voyager, Cassini, etc.) is the boldest and most visionary thing the human race has done, and a useful reminder that sometimes we can resemble an advanced civilisation.
hippo, Sep 15 2017
  

       I followed the NASA feed for the last few moments & when they finally called it, I felt disturbingly emotional. Not a very British feeling at all. I may have to seek medical advice.
;o)

PS: You are such a philistine, Mr Tindale. Somebody should beat you with a stick!
DrBob, Sep 15 2017
  

       Farewell, Cassini.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 15 2017
  

       // when they finally called it, I felt disturbingly emotional. Not a very British feeling at all. I may have to seek medical advice. //   

       Do not distress thyself, Cassini is safe in one of our cargo bays.   

       At the last possible second, we transported it on board and replaced it with a couple of scrap school buses welded together, with the same mass, momentum and trajectory.   

       After your species destroys itself, it'll be worth a fair bit, 'cos "they ain't makin' 'em no more" ...   

       // You are such a philistine, Mr Tindale. //   

       He's worse than that; he's from London.   

       Actually, the Philistines got rather a bad press, because the Hebrews wrote the history. There is actually no objective evidence that they were worse than any other tribal grouping present in the area at the time.   

       // Somebody should beat you with a stick! //   

       Do you see that long line of people over there ? The ones all holding various unpleasant-looking blunt instruments ?   

       Do you see how the line goes round that corner and reappears a few streets down, then continues out of sight ?   

       If you go over and ask them what they're queueing for, they'll tell you "Waiting to hit Ian Tindale with a stick".   

       The ones near the front of the line are actually the children or grandchildren of the original queue members, who have inherited their spot.
8th of 7, Sep 15 2017
  

       //sometimes we can resemble an advanced civilisation//   

       An advanced civilisation would be able to go and fetch them back when the job was done.   

       [+]
Wrongfellow, Sep 15 2017
  

       //Farewell to Cassini.//   

       That sounds more poetic but I think "Goodbye" is probably more appropriate for something that just burned up in a planet's atmosphere. It ain't faring too well. Just sayin'.   

       Addio Cassini? (That's the dramatic Italian word for goodbye, like when you're never going to see the person again.)
doctorremulac3, Sep 15 2017
  

       Did we have to say goodbye? Could there have been some archaeological/time capsule discovery made when we finally caught up with the probe? Stick in a slow leave or a Lagrange point for rediscovery. Thanks to the teams and their efforts, though. Humanity is richer.
wjt, Sep 16 2017
  

       Why was it not allowed to simply drift off?
xenzag, Sep 17 2017
  

       Because it might have impacted on Europa or some other moon, and we don't want to contaminate environments that might harbour life.
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 17 2017
  

       Life ? There's nothing there. It's a bleak, miserable, freezing dump, a sort of orbiting Milton Keynes.
8th of 7, Sep 17 2017
  

       //we don't want to contaminated environments that might harbour life.// What a pity that same caring attitude is not adopted here on earth where there is life.
xenzag, Sep 17 2017
  

       // here on earth where there is life //   

       ... but not, alas, intelligent life ...
8th of 7, Sep 17 2017
  

       Don't you mean Enceladus, [MB]?   

       And becoming one with Saturn is not necessarily a bad fate for a machine whose whole raison d'etre was focussed on the Saturn system, so I think it is "farewell".
nineteenthly, Sep 17 2017
  

       //Why was it not allowed to simply drift off?//   

       To add to what [Max] said, it didn't have enough kinetic energy or fuel to escape from Saturn's gravity well. It wasn't possible to let it "drift off" in the same way the Pioneer / Voyager / New Horizons probes are doing; it was doomed to stay close to Saturn forever, from the moment it arrived.
Wrongfellow, Sep 17 2017
  

       // doomed to stay close to Saturn forever //   

       Well, there are worse things .... at least there's a spectacular view to enjoy.
8th of 7, Sep 17 2017
  

       Ah yes, Enceladus indeed. Thank you, [19thly].
MaxwellBuchanan, Sep 17 2017
  

       Everyone knows there aren't any Black Monoliths on or near Saturn.
8th of 7, Sep 17 2017
  

       Does that Enchilada planet have a ring of fries orbiting it?
xenzag, Sep 17 2017
  

       Tacos ...
8th of 7, Sep 17 2017
  

       Maybe there are lakes of guacamole? - Quick - build another wall, before the Mexicans find out.
xenzag, Sep 17 2017
  

       ^ [m-f-d] Avocadocy ...
8th of 7, Sep 17 2017
  

       +1 Hi, Dr Bobby!
po, Sep 20 2017
  

       Hi po!
DrBob, Sep 20 2017
  

       // caused by dusty objects in interplanetary space. //   

       Hence the desperate need for more female astronauts ... lots if cleaning up to do out there.   

       <suddenly recalls received wisdom about women having no sense of humour, dives into bomb shelter, frantically piles sandbags in doorway >
8th of 7, Sep 20 2017
  
      
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