Alas, they depart so swiftly

[HopAlongBunny]

Cassini was bright eyed and full of vim when it got to Saturn
A scant 20 years on the job and it looks like the end is here.



Is there no viagra in space?

NASA site for Cassini:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/c...ain/index.html

[Gregoshi]

I'm really looking forward to looking at some of the images from the final couple of months, especially the detail in Saturn's cloud deck.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Jeez, it's as bad as raising parents. You spend nearly twenty years training them and then, when you step away for a few years to university, all that training goes down the tube and they revert.

[HopAlongBunny]

"Reports of my demise were greatly exaggerated!":

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/...nale/overview/

Looks like we are going to get a lot of new data and pictures before the final plunge; including first time look inside the rings :)

[Seamus Fermanagh]

This mission certainly got its money's worth.

[Gregoshi]

This image of the Earth and Moon through the rings is just amazing. Sure, they are just dots, but when you know what those dots are, it gets awesome.

[KukriKhan]

An!

[HopAlongBunny]

Countdown to Grand Finale
Sept. 15 is going to be the last Hurrah!:

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/...latest-status/

End notes:

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/312...ion-of-saturn/

Gone, but it sounds like they are going to be unpacking the data for years

[Gregoshi]

It is kind of sad that Cassini's last seconds will not be recorded. It would almost be perfect if its last transmission was "My God - it's full of stars!"

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Thank you Cassini. You have made a mark.

Next batter!

[HopAlongBunny]

Thank you Cassini. You have made a mark.
Next batter!

Batter up!
We might be preparing for a cruise on Titan
At around -179C it might be a little brisk for shuffleboard on deck...:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/bo...seas-1.4291964

[Seamus Fermanagh]

That would be something. Not sure the seas would have that particular look at that temperature though, plus the liquids are, as I recall, rather buried....

Still, next batter. Probably have to foul off a few before getting one that's worth a good slice.

[FringeMantra]

Well it's not a planet survey mission but the successor to the LISA pathfinder mission is about to step up to the plate.

Lisa completed its mission and was deactivated 2 months ago but she demonstrated the feasibility of space based laser interferometers for gravitational wave observatories.

https://www.nature.com/news/success-...ission-1.22205

"The LISA Pathfinder mission, launched in late 2015, beat its precision target by a factor of 1,000" lulz
"it showed that it could detect motions 100 times smaller than the pico-metre requirement. Since then, the experiment’s performance has improved by another order of magnitude."

The technology setup involved is pretty crazy.



the Billion EURO succesor mission was recently greenlit and would consist out of a constellation of three similar spacecraft, arranged in an equilateral triangle with sides 2.5 million km long, flying along an Earth-like heliocentric orbit.

It's similar to earth based gravitational wave observatories but with, obviously much longer arms, and precision so stunning it would allow us to map the minute business of our local and not so local heavy weights.