
Cassini will make its final close flyby of Saturn‘s moon Titan on April 21 - rbanffy
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3027/cassini-heads-toward-final-close-encounter-with-titan/
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rhodrid
CASSINI’S GRAND FINALE

[https://vimeo.com/210782375](https://vimeo.com/210782375)

"Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take
all that money we spend on weapons and defense each year, and instead spend it
feeding, clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would many
times over, not one human being excluded, and we can explore space together,
both inner and outer, forever, in peace."

~~~
oh_sigh
What happens if you spend all your self-defense money on 'feeding, clothing,
and educating the poor', and then a despotic nation which was spending 25% of
it's GDP on military rolls over you?

~~~
ak39
The poor, uneducated and subjugated people of this "despotic nation" are the
first folks we ought to feed, educate and look after.

Despots are created and thrive on the backs of hungry and hopeless citizens.

~~~
oh_sigh
Okay, so we feed and educate some other nations people, so that nation can now
afford to put 45% of it's GDP into weapons and military. I don't think that
will accomplish what we want it to accomplish.

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SamUK96
Sorry to be off-topic, but I really do despise the "stressed" narration voice
of STEM media these days.

Am I the only one here who misses the balanced, informed, steady and smooth
narration of Carl Sagan et al of yesteryear STEM media? Now all I hear is this
over-ambitious, over-animated, low-content, and stressed voice with absurdly
long pauses. Almost like somebody is shouting at you.

BBC are terrible for it in the UK, it seems like a race to the bottom. Whoever
can superficially appear the most terribly "passionate" about whatever they're
talking about gets the job...

Cassini rocks though, what an achievement for mankind the whole saga has been!

~~~
shrimp_emoji
People need to feel excited:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGUNPMPrxvA)

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stronglikedan
They're going to fly between the planet and it's rings - but how? I was
watching a show on Voyager 1 where they had originally thought about doing the
same, but were glad they didn't. When Voyager got close enough to image the
rings, there was quite a bit of debris between the planet and the rings.
Apparently, it was enough to ensure the destruction of the spacecraft. Do they
now know enough about that debris field, and now have accurate enough
"control" (calculated by astrodynamics), to avoid a collision?

~~~
patejam
Even if they're taking huge risks going through a debris field, they're
destroying the craft soon after anyway. If it actually is risky, it's probably
worth the risk.

~~~
stronglikedan
They're going to do it 22 times over 24 days before the descent into Saturn.
The only thing I can think of is that the 2,000 km gap is close enough to
avoid the debris, and perhaps they couldn't have calculated that close a fly-
by with Voyager 1 with the knowledge and technology of the day.

~~~
mikeash
It might have been a trajectory limitation. A major goal for Voyager 1 was to
fly by Titan, and it may not have been possible to both fly through the gap
and fly past Titan given the limited fuel available.

They might not have known the gap was there, either. Much of what is now known
about the structure of Saturn's rings was first discovered by the Voyagers.

------
_eric
The amount of data and images Cassini has collected over the years is really
something extraordinary.

Here's a collection of such images:
[https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/images/index.html](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cassini/images/index.html)

