Saturn images - Cassini
Discussion
Toaster said:
doubt that or you telling me no one cares is true because clearly they do.You may have noticed the real scientists and engineers on the BBC program refer to Cassini by name or 'it' rather than giving Cassini a gender clearly there was a lot of affection for Cassini by the team but at no point was 'it' humanised......
I saw the BBC programme on Cassini last night - well worth watching - and to suggest that it/she/he wasn't humanised by the team is wrong. There was a lot of anthropomorphism. There were tears during the final moments.Derek Smith said:
I saw the BBC programme on Cassini last night - well worth watching - and to suggest that it/she/he wasn't humanised by the team is wrong. There was a lot of anthropomorphism. There were tears during the final moments.
I agree it was well worth watching the science and engineering was and is amazing to see how the program evolved the changes that were made. Humans clearly have emotions about most things and as said when you have given 20-30 or more years to a career then it is emotive at the end what ever field of endeavour you are in, but not one of the engineers or scientists assigned a gender to the space craft only its name Cassini and 'it' never a nickname or gender.
Toaster said:
I agree it was well worth watching the science and engineering was and is amazing to see how the program evolved the changes that were made.
Humans clearly have emotions about most things and as said when you have given 20-30 or more years to a career then it is emotive at the end what ever field of endeavour you are in, but not one of the engineers or scientists assigned a gender to the space craft only its name Cassini and 'it' never a nickname or gender.
We are in the midst of significant social change. The old order changeth and all that, but it's moving quite rapidly. I think there's a reluctance in many people to use gender specific pronouns, whether from personal beliefs or a fear of seeming old fashioned. I'm all for it.Humans clearly have emotions about most things and as said when you have given 20-30 or more years to a career then it is emotive at the end what ever field of endeavour you are in, but not one of the engineers or scientists assigned a gender to the space craft only its name Cassini and 'it' never a nickname or gender.
I'm sure most of us who have followed Cassini from the launch, even if only vicariously, felt a smidgen of sadness at the representation of it burning up in the atmosphere. Or should I say death? Or should I not say it?
Apollo was great but the gifts from Cassini keep coming and coming. I'm not the only one with wallpaper on my laptop from the mission. When there have been so many magic real, or as real as it can get, Images from the craft, the gods bless her/him/it, it seems odd that I've picked the banner from https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/o...
What a triumph. More please.
Derek Smith said:
Toaster said:
I agree it was well worth watching the science and engineering was and is amazing to see how the program evolved the changes that were made.
Humans clearly have emotions about most things and as said when you have given 20-30 or more years to a career then it is emotive at the end what ever field of endeavour you are in, but not one of the engineers or scientists assigned a gender to the space craft only its name Cassini and 'it' never a nickname or gender.
We are in the midst of significant social change. The old order changeth and all that, but it's moving quite rapidly. I think there's a reluctance in many people to use gender specific pronouns, whether from personal beliefs or a fear of seeming old fashioned. I'm all for it.Humans clearly have emotions about most things and as said when you have given 20-30 or more years to a career then it is emotive at the end what ever field of endeavour you are in, but not one of the engineers or scientists assigned a gender to the space craft only its name Cassini and 'it' never a nickname or gender.
I'm sure most of us who have followed Cassini from the launch, even if only vicariously, felt a smidgen of sadness at the representation of it burning up in the atmosphere. Or should I say death? Or should I not say it?
Apollo was great but the gifts from Cassini keep coming and coming. I'm not the only one with wallpaper on my laptop from the mission. When there have been so many magic real, or as real as it can get, Images from the craft, the gods bless her/him/it, it seems odd that I've picked the banner from https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/o...
What a triumph. More please.
Probably much less than most hair dryer's
https://saturn-archive.jpl.nasa.gov/faq/FAQTechica...
As of January 2010, Cassini has about 680 watts of power available to operate both the engineering subsystems and science instruments. The radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provide the spacecraft’s electricity lose about 9 watts a year, so about 671 watts will be available in January 2011. At launch in October 1997, there were 878 watts available. The rate of power loss was greater in the first few years, due to the expected Silicon-Germanium terminal degradation.
https://saturn-archive.jpl.nasa.gov/faq/FAQTechica...
As of January 2010, Cassini has about 680 watts of power available to operate both the engineering subsystems and science instruments. The radioisotope thermoelectric generators that provide the spacecraft’s electricity lose about 9 watts a year, so about 671 watts will be available in January 2011. At launch in October 1997, there were 878 watts available. The rate of power loss was greater in the first few years, due to the expected Silicon-Germanium terminal degradation.
Eric Mc said:
Don't know for sure - I expect so. It's amazing the data they can send with the relatively low power available.
Maybe a repost but there is an interesting video floating around explaining how they keep in contact with voyager 2 > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRP1qdwPKw&t=...Not much attenuation in a vacuum. The hardest part for your satellite tv signal is that last bit through the atmosphere. Returning signal from a probe will have the same issues (depending on frequency as it differs across the bands) so stick a bigger dish on the receiver and a glorified LNB kept very very cold.
There is a formula for it.
There is a formula for it.
Live signals from the various probes are plotted here:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
Changing around as the Earth rotates.
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
Changing around as the Earth rotates.
Beati Dogu said:
Live signals from the various probes are plotted here:
https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
Changing around as the Earth rotates.
good ol' voyager1 ... keep on trucking my friendhttps://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html
Changing around as the Earth rotates.
SystemParanoia said:
good ol' voyager1 ... keep on trucking my friend
For goodness sake don't anthropomorphise this spacecraft. You're likely to be pulled up on it by certain people.But yes, both Voyagers have been amazing troopers.
To put into context how long ago that is, at the time Voyager 2 was launched, "Angelo" by The Brotherhood of Man was number 1 in the UK charts and at the launch of Voyager 1 "Way Down" by Elvis (he'd just died) was No.1. Jim Callaghan was Prime Minister and punk was just beginning to have an impact. I was embarking on my second year of being an articled clerk as a trainee accountant and the price of a pint was about 35p.
I just watched it. A pretty good programme - although there were lots of discoveries made by Cassini which they hardly touched. It just shows what a successful mission it was.
And it was interesting to see how emotional the scientist and engineers got as its demise got closer and closer. One even mentioned that it was like saying goodbye to a dear friend.
Shame on her for not being non-detached and impersonal.
And it was interesting to see how emotional the scientist and engineers got as its demise got closer and closer. One even mentioned that it was like saying goodbye to a dear friend.
Shame on her for not being non-detached and impersonal.
Eric Mc said:
I just watched it. A pretty good programme - although there were lots of discoveries made by Cassini which they hardly touched. It just shows what a successful mission it was.
And it was interesting to see how emotional the scientist and engineers got as its demise got closer and closer. One even mentioned that it was like saying goodbye to a dear friend.
Shame on her for not being non-detached and impersonal.
Play fair Eric, in a number of cases it's also saying goodbye to a pay cheque; emotional's fine. And it was interesting to see how emotional the scientist and engineers got as its demise got closer and closer. One even mentioned that it was like saying goodbye to a dear friend.
Shame on her for not being non-detached and impersonal.
Some will be at retirement age so the demise of Cassini marks the end of their full time career as a planetary scientist or spacecraft engineer.
The younger ones will more than likely be assigned to other programmes. In fact, most of the people involved have lots of irons in the fire regarding what they do. Although many would have spent over 20 years on Cassini, being academics, they would have other sources of income and other projects running parallel with Cassini. On these deep space missions there are long periods of time where nothing much is happening so the people involved have plenty of opportunities to engage in other matters related to their specialist skills.
I would actually say that the loss of income from the end of the Cassini project would be fairly low in their thoughts in the final hours of the mission. Indeed, there is still a lot of data that needs to be examined and researched from those last few days that should keep some scientists busy for a few more years.
The younger ones will more than likely be assigned to other programmes. In fact, most of the people involved have lots of irons in the fire regarding what they do. Although many would have spent over 20 years on Cassini, being academics, they would have other sources of income and other projects running parallel with Cassini. On these deep space missions there are long periods of time where nothing much is happening so the people involved have plenty of opportunities to engage in other matters related to their specialist skills.
I would actually say that the loss of income from the end of the Cassini project would be fairly low in their thoughts in the final hours of the mission. Indeed, there is still a lot of data that needs to be examined and researched from those last few days that should keep some scientists busy for a few more years.
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