It worked! Huygens has successfully landed on Saturn's moon Titan and the Cassini orbiter is sending good data back to Earth as I type. Isn't it amazing how we can take a probe the size of a compact car, send it on a 7 year journey in the most inhospitable environment imaginable, deploy a sub-probe that has been dormant for that entire time and land it where we had planned on another solar body so far away that it takes 67 minutes to get a signal back and forth. Exploration and research has never been so cool.
posted by tgrundke on Jan 14, 2005 - 37 comments

On the all-important question of power-the efficacy of power, the morality of power, the desirability of power-Americans and European perspectives are diverging. This article is a good analysis of the divergent Euro-American opinions. Also brings Kant's "Perpetual Peace" into play. Seeing as the former bloodiest continent has been tamed since WWII, to what extent do the Europeans have a point? Where do the flaws exist in their logic-and where/when should hard power be utilized to bring about longer-lasting peace?
posted by tgrundke on Oct 3, 2002 - 2 comments