
Cassini Celebrates a Decade in Orbit Around Saturn - srikar
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2014/06/30/cassini-10th-anniversary/
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DCKing
This has been an incredible mission. Ignoring all tremendously profound
scientific discoveries that have been made, it would have been worth it just
for the pretty pictures [1].

I hope someday we can have missions like that to Uranus and Neptune as well.
That's still so far away, sadly.

[1]
[http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/halloffame/](http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/photos/halloffame/)

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InclinedPlane
Unfortunately, even if launch prices drop dramatically over the next several
years the absence of Pu-238 production in the US will sharply limit our
ability to send probes to the outer planets.

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ccozan
Can't believe it's been 10 years already. I still fresh rememeber the long
night on #space IRC channel counting down the Titan descent and visualising
the first transmitted data ( good job, Rene Pascal! ). Seeing the alien
landscape for the first time gave me shivers and made me think I already live
in the future.

What is the next major event?

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bashinator
New Horizons will be doing a close flyby of the Pluto/Charon system next year
- that should be pretty good.

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mturmon
Yes. I was reading ([http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/06/hubble-
telescope-lo...](http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/06/hubble-telescope-
look-follow-target-pluto-bound-probe)) that they got a bunch of Hubble time to
look for Kuiper Belt Objects to target after they swing by Pluto. They need to
know now so they can get the gravity assist correct.

Given the lack of complete knowledge about the mass distribution of Pluto-
Charon system, that must be a hell of a hard problem.

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strick
Great way to celebrate is to give this another listen: Carolyn Porco: This is
Saturn
[http://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn](http://www.ted.com/talks/carolyn_porco_flies_us_to_saturn)

I haven't heard it myself for years but still think of it often. It is one of
the most inspiring things I have ever heard.

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Titanbase
I'm shocked something hasn't hit the spacecraft yet and obliterated it. It's
been great to see the photographs from out there!

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ceejayoz
Space is big, and as such, things that'd hit a spacecraft hard enough to do
damage are few and far between. I'm not aware of a single spacecraft in
history being disabled by naturally occurring debris.

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Zancarius
I believe Cassini also flew through a gap in the outer rings during its
initial positioning, using the communications dish as a shield against
residual dust. There was also a recording released that transposed the energy
dispersed from the impacts into audible noise. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: Here we go. Info [1] and sound [2]

[1] [http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-
Huyg...](http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-
Huygens/Hear_the_passage_through_the_rings)

[2]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rrc5pxRdLc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rrc5pxRdLc)

