
How Cassini Will Begin Its Date with Death on Saturn - my_first_acct
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/science/cassini-saturn-rings.html
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joshlemer
Pardon my ignorance, but what is the point in sending the Cassini probe to
burn up in Saturn's atmosphere? Are there no more useful observations it can
make, and if there isn't right now, can it not just be parked in orbit around
Saturn until later? I mean, just the launch vehicle itself cost $422 million
according to Wikipedia.

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kkylin
The article didn't say, but off-hand I would guess it's for the same reason
they crashed Galileo into Jupiter
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(spacecraft)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_\(spacecraft\))),
namely to avoid any possibility of contaminating one of the moons (see
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Titan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Titan))
with life (e.g., bacteria) from Earth.

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myowncrapulence
Are we not actively trying to terraform Mars? Why is "life contamination" seen
as a problem for our solar system rather than a goal?

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noelwelsh
The days of colonialism, when Europeans showed up on foreign shores, killed
the natives, and claimed the land as their own, are over.

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myowncrapulence

      are over
    

You mean like in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Israel?

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noelwelsh
Those are proxy wars and/or puppet governments, which is a different thing to
colonisation. There is somewhat more regard for the rights of the native
inhabitants than in the past.

If we ever find alien life, the Outer Space Treaty prohibits colonisation in
the sense we're using here. Of course this is a very easy treaty to sign up to
at this point in our development of space travel. If space travel ever becomes
cheap enough to enable exploitation of resource on distant planets I imagine
those laws will see some amendments.

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myowncrapulence
So, why is it a goal to send humans there? Humans breathe out bacteria
constantly and will guarantee contamination of Mars.

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IndianAstronaut
Cassini gave us so much amazing information. Lakes on Titan, giant geysers on
Encaladus from an underground ocean, a moon that looks like the death star,
our first lander on an object further than Mars, etc.

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lucidguppy
Doesn't Cassini have some nasty nuclear fuel? Probably best to put it where no
one could get at it.

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punnerud
If you can't read:
[https://www.google.no/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd...](https://www.google.no/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiK7sLIo8jQAhViLZoKHdPwCKAQqQIIHjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2016%2F11%2F25%2Fscience%2Fcassini-
saturn-rings.html&usg=AFQjCNGK77fbavJgWmyzg1XzJNIThj25_g) (skip subscription
by going through Google)

