Cassini's Grand Finale
April 7, 2017 1:28 PM Subscribe
How to Mourn a Space Robot. "NASA’s Cassini probe will soon plunge into Saturn, ending its 13-year mission to the ringed planet and triggering a wave of grief among scientists, engineers, and an adoring public."
Watch How a Beloved Spacecraft Will Die in Saturn's Atmosphere
NASA will destroy a $3.26 billion Saturn probe this summer to protect an alien water world
RIP Cassini: A Look Back At the Doomed Probe's Most Stunning Saturn Pictures
Saturn's Moon, Enceladus, Is Our Closest Great Hope For Life Beyond Earth
Watch How a Beloved Spacecraft Will Die in Saturn's Atmosphere
NASA will destroy a $3.26 billion Saturn probe this summer to protect an alien water world
RIP Cassini: A Look Back At the Doomed Probe's Most Stunning Saturn Pictures
Saturn's Moon, Enceladus, Is Our Closest Great Hope For Life Beyond Earth
I haz a sad. This is Space Dishwasher all over again.
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:47 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Capt. Renault at 1:47 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
13-year mission to the ringed planet
About 7 years to get there, and 13 at Saturn.
posted by zamboni at 1:52 PM on April 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
About 7 years to get there, and 13 at Saturn.
posted by zamboni at 1:52 PM on April 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Don't be too sad, folks. This is the best of all possible ends for a spacecraft. Cassini-Huygens launched successfully, arrived safely, did incredible science, and is calling it quits only because the propellant supply is running out. This is as full a life as a planetary spacecraft can have.
posted by zamboni at 2:02 PM on April 7, 2017 [35 favorites]
posted by zamboni at 2:02 PM on April 7, 2017 [35 favorites]
Cassini has been such a successful mission, that it will end with it giving us more data about Saturn and its rings than we've ever had before I think is a glorious way to go out.
posted by hippybear at 2:05 PM on April 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 2:05 PM on April 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
Here's to Cassini! It did its job admirably, and is now taking a final plunge to safeguard the rest of the system from any possibility of contamination by Terrestrial microbes, or its atomic fuel, or simply being a navigational hazard. Sucks that it can't just stay in orbit as a monument to science, but we've got to be tidy.
posted by sotonohito at 2:14 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by sotonohito at 2:14 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
One of the wallpapers my computer cycle through is from Cassini!
posted by sotonohito at 2:14 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sotonohito at 2:14 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also, nobody ever counts Gor as a planet.
posted by hippybear at 2:17 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 2:17 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Also, nobody ever counts Gor as a planet.
Or Barsoom.
posted by Roentgen at 2:21 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Or Barsoom.
posted by Roentgen at 2:21 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Some of us are moving to Barsoom, soon real soon!
posted by sammyo at 2:24 PM on April 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by sammyo at 2:24 PM on April 7, 2017 [3 favorites]
This is sad. But at least Cassini realized its purpose.
The one that really broke me up was Mars Observer. Somewhere along the way a valve ruptured, spewing fuel and causing the machine to spin, damaging electronics and causing it to slip out of its programming sequence. Deaf and silent it raced past its target and into orbit around the sun, somewhere out there all alone, waiting forever for the signal from us to begin the descent to a new home overlooking Mars.
posted by notyou at 2:26 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
The one that really broke me up was Mars Observer. Somewhere along the way a valve ruptured, spewing fuel and causing the machine to spin, damaging electronics and causing it to slip out of its programming sequence. Deaf and silent it raced past its target and into orbit around the sun, somewhere out there all alone, waiting forever for the signal from us to begin the descent to a new home overlooking Mars.
posted by notyou at 2:26 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
.
Cassini's images have single handedly brought me out of a few depressive holes. I'll miss it so much.
What else is going around, or about to launch, to give me some pretty pictures and remind that not all we do is inherently afwul, cruel and ugly?
posted by _Synesthesia_ at 2:35 PM on April 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Cassini's images have single handedly brought me out of a few depressive holes. I'll miss it so much.
What else is going around, or about to launch, to give me some pretty pictures and remind that not all we do is inherently afwul, cruel and ugly?
posted by _Synesthesia_ at 2:35 PM on April 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
This is reminiscent of the ending of Old Yeller, in that both are simultaneously sad yet beautiful and also entail a faltering space probe plunging to fiery doom in the atmosphere of an alien gas giant.
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:41 PM on April 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:41 PM on April 7, 2017 [10 favorites]
Also I believe Old Yeller ignored half the data transmitted by the probe in that story.
posted by Wolfdog at 2:43 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
posted by Wolfdog at 2:43 PM on April 7, 2017 [5 favorites]
Saturn has ALWAYS been my favourite planet. Those rings. Job well done Cassini!
posted by Fizz at 3:16 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Fizz at 3:16 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
The one that really broke me up was Mars Observer.
Not long ago the Electronics Goldmine surplus house had a run of NASA garage-cleaning junque. As a result I have four bags of smaller bags of precision resistors, each accompanied by a detailed quality control label and many of them clearly marked for Mars Observer.
Fun fact: Mars Observer was an early stab at doing it cheaper, and used a lot of "off the shelf" parts (OK, it was a pretty exotic shelf, but still) regularly used for Earth-circling communication satellites. The engine problem that destroyed it probably resulted from the engine control components, which had been designed to loft a comsat to GEO from LEO shortly after launch, not working so well after nearly a year in deep space on the trajectory to Mars.
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:04 PM on April 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Not long ago the Electronics Goldmine surplus house had a run of NASA garage-cleaning junque. As a result I have four bags of smaller bags of precision resistors, each accompanied by a detailed quality control label and many of them clearly marked for Mars Observer.
Fun fact: Mars Observer was an early stab at doing it cheaper, and used a lot of "off the shelf" parts (OK, it was a pretty exotic shelf, but still) regularly used for Earth-circling communication satellites. The engine problem that destroyed it probably resulted from the engine control components, which had been designed to loft a comsat to GEO from LEO shortly after launch, not working so well after nearly a year in deep space on the trajectory to Mars.
posted by Bringer Tom at 4:04 PM on April 7, 2017 [7 favorites]
Mars Observer...somewhere out there all alone, waiting forever for the signal from us to begin the descent to a new home overlooking Mars.
That would make an interesting premise for a story, the young engineering apprentices who fly out to Mars Observer and patch it up so it can finish its mission.
posted by johnabbe at 4:24 PM on April 7, 2017
That would make an interesting premise for a story, the young engineering apprentices who fly out to Mars Observer and patch it up so it can finish its mission.
posted by johnabbe at 4:24 PM on April 7, 2017
I promised my kids we'd have a Cassini-crashing party in which we will have space-craft-crashing activities yet to be named like maybe drawing little Cassinis on waterballoons and throwing them at a Saturn target or something, and also a cake decorated like Saturn with a little Cassini crashing into it.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:38 PM on April 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:38 PM on April 7, 2017 [9 favorites]
I should add, my boys love Cassini so much that they wanted to name their baby sister "Nasa Cassini." I passed, but I do still think it's a great girl's name.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:40 PM on April 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:40 PM on April 7, 2017 [16 favorites]
I'm casting a very smug look in the direction I believe Jello Biafra to be occupying right now.
posted by sonascope at 6:09 PM on April 7, 2017
posted by sonascope at 6:09 PM on April 7, 2017
The video of Huygens' landing has always been exciting for me, even after watching many times --an actual touch-down on an alien world-- so I'm especially sad that we'll be saying goodbye to Huygens' mother-ship Cassini.
Copying tilde:
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posted by anadem at 6:47 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Copying tilde:
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posted by anadem at 6:47 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
Also, nobody ever counts Gor as a planet
Most of us are still trying to forget the buffalo shots.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:51 PM on April 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
Most of us are still trying to forget the buffalo shots.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 6:51 PM on April 7, 2017 [2 favorites]
I don't get the first, "Saturn With Its Hat On Backwards," image. I will turn on the big screen later. The photo works from Cassini are so splendid. The beauty and the mystery of the Saturn system absolutely haunts the imagination. Cassini is one of the best things we have ever accomplished.
posted by Oyéah at 8:20 PM on April 7, 2017
posted by Oyéah at 8:20 PM on April 7, 2017
won't there be awesome pictures of the plunge though??
posted by resplendentsaturation at 8:50 PM on April 7, 2017
posted by resplendentsaturation at 8:50 PM on April 7, 2017
.
How cool that humanity has made things like this exist.
posted by yueliang at 11:00 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
How cool that humanity has made things like this exist.
posted by yueliang at 11:00 PM on April 7, 2017 [1 favorite]
johnabbe: "That would make an interesting premise for a story, the young engineering apprentices who fly out to Mars Observer and patch it up so it can finish its mission."
Feels very Asimov.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:31 PM on April 7, 2017
Feels very Asimov.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:31 PM on April 7, 2017
> I promised my kids we'd have a Cassini-crashing party in which we will have space-craft-crashing activities yet to be named like maybe drawing little Cassinis on waterballoons and throwing them at a Saturn target or something, and also a cake decorated like Saturn with a little Cassini crashing into it.
What a great idea. There is a Ted Danson movie called Pontiac Moon where a father takes his son on a road trip timed to arrive at a monument called the Spires of the Moon at the same time as Apollo 11 lands. Your party and that movie have inspired me to do something similar -- I think on that fateful day in September, I shall honor Cassini by driving my car into the side of a Taco Bell.
posted by davelog at 6:00 AM on April 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
What a great idea. There is a Ted Danson movie called Pontiac Moon where a father takes his son on a road trip timed to arrive at a monument called the Spires of the Moon at the same time as Apollo 11 lands. Your party and that movie have inspired me to do something similar -- I think on that fateful day in September, I shall honor Cassini by driving my car into the side of a Taco Bell.
posted by davelog at 6:00 AM on April 8, 2017 [5 favorites]
It's obviously very silly, because if you had the delta-v you'd use it for a longer mission in situ, but part of me wishes that there was some way to boost Cassini out of orbit and send it on a Voyager-style path to the gaps between the stars. Mostly because I'm sure that one day, we'll be able to nip out there and bring it back (or organise tourist visits), and that would be rather excellent.
But this Viking funeral is noble enough.
Speaking of which, I note this from the NASA Viking 1 Orbiter mission page - On 7 August 1980 Viking 1 Orbiter was running low on attitude control gas and its orbit was raised from 357 x 33943 km to 320 x 56000 km to prevent impact with Mars and possible contamination until the year 2019. So I wonder if we're about to see that happen, or what the prognosis is for it and its sibling. I'll dash off a note to NASA PR and see what it has to say about it.
On the subject of component failures, my favourite is the frequency tracking loop capacitor in Voyager 2's secondary radio receiver. As the primary receiver is no longer working, this means the spacecraft can't lock onto its uplink, but drifts gently around as thermal effects on the spacecraft dictate. The ground has to work out what frequency the spacecraft is probably listening to, calculate all the dopplers and then get to 100 Hz of the centre. Mostly, this works - after a configuration change on the spacecraft that affects the thermals, there's a three-day moratorium to let things settle down, but they admit that sometimes they're reduced to 'shouting at the sky' on a range of frequencies until they get through - which with a round-trip radio time of 31-plus hours, is quite something.
posted by Devonian at 8:32 AM on April 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
But this Viking funeral is noble enough.
Speaking of which, I note this from the NASA Viking 1 Orbiter mission page - On 7 August 1980 Viking 1 Orbiter was running low on attitude control gas and its orbit was raised from 357 x 33943 km to 320 x 56000 km to prevent impact with Mars and possible contamination until the year 2019. So I wonder if we're about to see that happen, or what the prognosis is for it and its sibling. I'll dash off a note to NASA PR and see what it has to say about it.
On the subject of component failures, my favourite is the frequency tracking loop capacitor in Voyager 2's secondary radio receiver. As the primary receiver is no longer working, this means the spacecraft can't lock onto its uplink, but drifts gently around as thermal effects on the spacecraft dictate. The ground has to work out what frequency the spacecraft is probably listening to, calculate all the dopplers and then get to 100 Hz of the centre. Mostly, this works - after a configuration change on the spacecraft that affects the thermals, there's a three-day moratorium to let things settle down, but they admit that sometimes they're reduced to 'shouting at the sky' on a range of frequencies until they get through - which with a round-trip radio time of 31-plus hours, is quite something.
posted by Devonian at 8:32 AM on April 8, 2017 [6 favorites]
(A cheery auto-reply from planetary science flack Laurie at Nasa says she's off travelling until 17th April, but I guess there's no rush...)
posted by Devonian at 8:40 AM on April 8, 2017
posted by Devonian at 8:40 AM on April 8, 2017
I often think of Voyager 1 - lonely after 30 plus years in inter-steller space.
posted by path at 11:16 AM on April 8, 2017
posted by path at 11:16 AM on April 8, 2017
From last month: No, aliens haven't invaded Saturn: It's Pan, the flying saucer moon!
Goodbye, Mimas, and thanks for all the Star Wars jokes
posted by homunculus at 2:45 PM on April 8, 2017
Goodbye, Mimas, and thanks for all the Star Wars jokes
posted by homunculus at 2:45 PM on April 8, 2017
I often think of Voyager 1 - lonely after 30 plus years in inter-steller space
And think of all the trouble V'Ger will cause, out of mere loneliness. C'Sini will know she was intentionally plunged into a gas giant, and will want revenge.
posted by mubba at 5:30 PM on April 8, 2017
And think of all the trouble V'Ger will cause, out of mere loneliness. C'Sini will know she was intentionally plunged into a gas giant, and will want revenge.
posted by mubba at 5:30 PM on April 8, 2017
I shall honor Cassini by driving my car into the side of a Taco Bell.
You need to find an old Saturn and drive it into the headquarters of the Oleg Cassini fashion house.
posted by TedW at 8:09 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
You need to find an old Saturn and drive it into the headquarters of the Oleg Cassini fashion house.
posted by TedW at 8:09 PM on April 8, 2017 [1 favorite]
And there I was, thinking Cassini Division was a musical group who specialised in baroque reworkings of Ian Curtis songs.
posted by Devonian at 5:23 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Devonian at 5:23 AM on April 9, 2017 [1 favorite]
Bittersweet for sure, particularly that it was Cassini's own amazing discoveries near Enceladus that doomed it.
Most of my space tears are currently reserved for the lost generation of Venus scholars, but I'm sure I'll have a few left in September. Can't wait to hear what we learn on the descent.
posted by mediareport at 7:07 AM on April 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Most of my space tears are currently reserved for the lost generation of Venus scholars, but I'm sure I'll have a few left in September. Can't wait to hear what we learn on the descent.
posted by mediareport at 7:07 AM on April 10, 2017 [2 favorites]
Here's the skinny on the Viking orbiters - a MetaFilter exclusive!
Thank you for your enquiry, Devonian. I hope this answers your query
A recent analysis has been performed to assess the evolution of Viking 1’s orbit since the last known parameters from July 30, 1980. Effects of Solar Radiation Pressure, atmospheric drag, solar gravity, and other parameters were statistically propagated for different spacecraft attitudes and integrated in a Monte Carlo analysis. The variation over 100 samples was quite small, with the result that the periapsis of Viking Orbiter 1 varies from ~210 to 720 km and the apoapsis varies from ~55,900 to 56,380 km over cycles of about 12 years. The dominant perturbation is solar gravity. A long-term assessment shows this orbit to be stable for well beyond 100 years from now. We expect that the results for Viking Orbiter 2 would be similar, although that specific analysis has not been performed.
This is new work, and it has not been through a rigorous peer review process, but we believe it indicates that these orbiters remain in stable long-term orbits around Mars.
posted by Devonian at 12:39 PM on April 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
Thank you for your enquiry, Devonian. I hope this answers your query
A recent analysis has been performed to assess the evolution of Viking 1’s orbit since the last known parameters from July 30, 1980. Effects of Solar Radiation Pressure, atmospheric drag, solar gravity, and other parameters were statistically propagated for different spacecraft attitudes and integrated in a Monte Carlo analysis. The variation over 100 samples was quite small, with the result that the periapsis of Viking Orbiter 1 varies from ~210 to 720 km and the apoapsis varies from ~55,900 to 56,380 km over cycles of about 12 years. The dominant perturbation is solar gravity. A long-term assessment shows this orbit to be stable for well beyond 100 years from now. We expect that the results for Viking Orbiter 2 would be similar, although that specific analysis has not been performed.
This is new work, and it has not been through a rigorous peer review process, but we believe it indicates that these orbiters remain in stable long-term orbits around Mars.
posted by Devonian at 12:39 PM on April 11, 2017 [4 favorites]
NASA finds more evidence that the ocean on Enceladus could support alien life: Hydrothermal activity on the moon’s sea floor could have the right stuff for microbes to thrive
The Icy Plumes Shooting Out of Saturn’s Moon Just Got Way More Interesting: Hydrogen in the jets suggests that earth-like processes may be operating deep in Enceladus’ ice-capped ocean.
posted by homunculus at 12:44 PM on April 13, 2017
The Icy Plumes Shooting Out of Saturn’s Moon Just Got Way More Interesting: Hydrogen in the jets suggests that earth-like processes may be operating deep in Enceladus’ ice-capped ocean.
posted by homunculus at 12:44 PM on April 13, 2017
Here's NASA's announcement via PBS NewsHour on YouTube:
NASA finds hints of life-sustaining ocean features on Saturn's moon Enceladus
posted by homunculus at 4:03 PM on April 13, 2017
NASA finds hints of life-sustaining ocean features on Saturn's moon Enceladus
posted by homunculus at 4:03 PM on April 13, 2017
Cassini Spacecraft Captures Stunning Close-Ups Of Saturn’s ‘Flying Saucer Moon’ Atlas
posted by homunculus at 10:30 AM on April 15, 2017
posted by homunculus at 10:30 AM on April 15, 2017
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