Cassini Struck by Hailstorm of Ring Particles at Saturn

The Cassini spacecraft was hit by storms of dust as it passed through Saturn's rings twice just before going into orbit June 30.

john

space.com...

Wow 100,000 total dust hits in less than five minutes slamming into it at about 45,000 mph (20 kilometers per second). Thats one tough little probe to still be working after that. Plus it was built by the lowest bidder

You should really use the search engine because I posted this almost 2 days before with exact same title.

MODERATOR please remove or lock this thread.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

X

I thought that NASA expected that Cassini would be hit by alot of debris and manovered the probe so that the debris would be blocked by the radio dish.

Xeven,

Well, it DID pass throught the RINGS twice as well..

I saw an interview with one of the Designers of the craft.
At those speeds, POOF, ionization...barely a microcrater..that is,
until the particles get a little larger than dust grains


P.S.
I thought I was losing it..I remembered that you started a thread..
But you weren't at the top of this one..

heh oh well mods been slacking alot lately anyway. Prolly partying from all the promotions

X

Mxyztos,

Thats true, they did use the dish as a particle blocker.
Apparently it served it's OTHER purpose well..

Space