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NASA's Cassini spacecraft will enter new territory in its final mission phase, the Grand Finale, as it prepares to embark on a set of ultra-close passes through Saturn's upper atmosphere with its final five orbits around the planet.
"As it makes these five dips into Saturn, followed by its final plunge, Cassini will become the first Saturn atmospheric probe," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL. "It's long been a goal in planetary exploration to send a dedicated probe into the atmosphere of Saturn, and we're laying the groundwork for future exploration with this first foray."
originally posted by: prevenge
a reply to: Krakatoa
Mmm let's send a plutonium powered probe to crash into our neighborhood gas giant!
Yeah let's do that!
When's the impact?
Sept 21st - 23rd I bet...
originally posted by: samkent
What is sad is there is only 6 replies to this thread.
If you had said Cassini found a derelict space craft you would have 600 replies.
Such is the intellect level on the internet.
originally posted by: wildespace
originally posted by: prevenge
a reply to: Krakatoa
Mmm let's send a plutonium powered probe to crash into our neighborhood gas giant!
Yeah let's do that!
When's the impact?
Sept 21st - 23rd I bet...
The impact is on Sep 15th. There's absolutely no danger of the plutonium causing a nuclear explosion. It will simply disintegrate and burn up together with the spacecraft. Even if it did explode, the force would be like a mosquito smashing into a car's windscreen.
The last signals will be received by Canberra's Deep Space Communications Complex at 9:54pm AEST on Friday, September 15 — a final message from a spacecraft that began its journey aboard a Titan IV rocket on October 15, 1997.