posted
Well, Cassini stays well away from Jupiter because orbiting Jupiter makes studying Saturn unnecessarily difficult.
As to the rest, while Jupiter has exerted a huge influence on the development of the solar system, it is not some solar system Sargasso. (This entire post was an excuse for that phrase.) It's the third most visited planet. (Not including Earth, of course.) The danger to spacecraft orbiting Jupiter isn't running into things, it's the intense radiation.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Any post with "Sargasso" gets a thumbs up in my book.
Now try for "miasma" and you'll really be on a roll.
I think we should look closer at Venus- we kinda gave up on as just "the greenhouse-effect planet". and because we cant see shit from orbit like we can on Mars.
Speaking of which, I've been waiting over a year for a company that makes bueatiful (and NASA-accurate!) globes of mars to resume production.
Fuck, it's a cool looking planet.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
*nods* even a distant orbit of Jupiter would be better. Of all the things we can study, Pluto rates very low in my book.
Registered: Dec 2005
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OnToMars
Now on to the making of films!
Member # 621
posted
Some friends and I went down to watch the launch from Titusville on Tuesday. It kept getting delayed and and we kept hanging out on the other side of the river from KSC as it was pushed back five or ten minutes over and over again. Eventually, it was scrubbed for the day and we returned to Daytona.
On Thursday, one friend and I went down again to try and catch it. But this time, if it didn't go off on time, we would have to miss it, since my friend had a meeting he had to be back for. And...it was delayed. We hung out as long as we could but eventually had to start back. While still in Titusville my friend's coworked who works at the Cape and had been giving us regular updates calls and says it's go for launch in the next five minutes. We quickly pull into a parking lot by a bridge and wait.
Delayed. Again.
Very frustrated at this point, we hope in the car and head home. While on I-95, my friend's coworker calls again to tell us it's go, so we pull over onto the side of the road and get the best view we can.
It's a little dissapointing that we didn't get the view that we were going for, but at least we got to see it, and I have it on video, which I might post if I get around to it.
But in all, the delaying of that rocket was ridiculous. Winds were barely over the limit the entire time; at one point, they were in there safety margins for wind, but instead of proceeding from their four minute hold right then and launching at 3:09, they for whatever reason decided to wait until the last possible minute of the launch window at 3:23, by which time the winds were over acceptable limits again.
I'm sure they had good reasons for delaying so much and yes, they are rocket scientists and I have no real base to criticize the decisions they make and of course they need to be careful with rockets and payloads as important as this one, but damnit if it isn't frustrating to people who care so much and try to be enthusiastic and supportive.
Oh well, I saw it, in a fashion, and in ten years I'll be able to tell my nephew that I was there when that rocket went up, that which will be all the way to Pluto.
-------------------- If God didn't want us to fly, he wouldn't have given us Bernoulli's Principle.
Registered: Jun 2001
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posted
Er....this baby has a nuclear power supply- so "barely over the limit" could have become "and those reckless morons at NASA allowed it to go up in unsafe conditions, leading to a huge ecological disaster...."
I'm sure that NASA's official word on the people having to wait for another launch is "Fuck 'em."
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
The nuclear power supply the probe uses only creates 400W of electricty to run craft's computer. A huge ecological disaster would not occur if it crashed- though it would be bad PR, and people would flip out... cause they were already flipping out that it had radioactive elements onboard.
Registered: Dec 2005
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Teh PW
Self Impossed Exile (This Space for rent)
Member # 1203
posted
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Er....this baby has a nuclear power supply- so "barely over the limit" could have become "and those reckless morons at NASA allowed it to go up in unsafe conditions, leading to a huge ecological disaster...."
I'm sure that NASA's official word on the people having to wait for another launch is "Fuck 'em."
quote:Originally posted by Shakaar: The nuclear power supply the probe uses only creates 400W of electricty to run craft's computer. A huge ecological disaster would not occur if it crashed- though it would be bad PR, and people would flip out... cause they were already flipping out that it had radioactive elements onboard.
true, true, true...
and when was this last official deployment of something to Mercury?
Registered: Jan 2004
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
I remember this little fact from a few years back, i don't remember the source or if it's even true. But it said that every human being on the planet has some Plutonium atoms in thier system because a nuclear powered satelite fell to earth and exploded spreadying the plutonium into the atmosphere. Has anyone else heard anything similar?
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
As far as the launch delays go, I expect the folks at NASA are more interested in getting the probe safely into space so they can make the scientific studies they devote their lives to, then in a bunch of slack-jawed yokels who "wanna see tha rocker-ship go up".
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: I remember this little fact from a few years back, i don't remember the source or if it's even true. But it said that every human being on the planet has some Plutonium atoms in thier system because a nuclear powered satelite fell to earth and exploded spreadying the plutonium into the atmosphere. Has anyone else heard anything similar?
That may account for my telekinetic abilities, Liam's ability to morph into anything he wants, Jason's ability to control fire, Simon's superspeed, LOA's super strength and Tim's ability to err. grow and shorten the length of his nails.
Apologies to Family Guy.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
quote:Originally posted by Da_bang80: I remember this little fact from a few years back, i don't remember the source or if it's even true. But it said that every human being on the planet has some Plutonium atoms in thier system because a nuclear powered satelite fell to earth and exploded spreadying the plutonium into the atmosphere. Has anyone else heard anything similar?
I would doubt this- Plutonium is very rare, we are awash in radiation though at all times, and do have radioactive elements in us. Carbon 14 is radioactive, and all carbon contains carbon 14- this is how we "carbon date" things, via what the half-life of the carbon 14 is. Coal burning energy plants have released much more radiation into our environment than the nuclear industry has.
Registered: Dec 2005
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posted
I still can't believe that no one has yet picked up on the fact that there's an object in our solar system (or beyond it, depending on your point of view) named Buffy.
Anyway, there's a probe on it's way to Mercury called Messenger. Also, I believe there's a probe on it's way to Venus called Venus Express. There's an ESA spacecraft called SMART-1 in orbit around the Moon which is expected to impact sometime in August, making it the first spacecraft to land (crash) on the lunar surface since the mid-'90's, when Lunar Prospector crashed into the Moon's north (or south?) pole.
Registered: Jun 2000
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quote:Originally posted by Dukhat: I still can't believe that no one has yet picked up on the fact that there's an object in our solar system (or beyond it, depending on your point of view) named Buffy.
We railed agianst such abject stupidity when it was first announced.
I still hate when people pronounce Pluto's moon Charon with a soft "sh" sound.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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