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The 20-year Cassini mission to study Saturn meets its end on Friday morning...

Cassini Burns into Saturn After Grand Finale | Out There

https://www.youtube.com/v/5jRYB3nGxmc

They had to do something.  It was out of fuel.  It only ran 40 years on what it had.  No way to "bring it back into the shop" for refitting.  We got an immense amount of information about Saturn and its moons as well as the structure of the rings.

I will be sad to see it go, but they are planning another mission in the mid 2020's (I don't know if I'll see it).  I wish we could watch the view until the last minute, though.

They really need to start budgeting for a live deathcam on these things.

If Cassini were a person, it would be looking back on a long, purposeful life, hopefully with a great sense of pride and accomplishment. More bittersweet than simply sad.

Maybe someone should write an opera - though I think the Mars rovers might make a better story.

The Mars Pathfinder mission would be the prologue, ending with the Sojourner rover still "alive" but cut after after its base unit died. After that, it would follow the twins Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit's story would end with the rover stuck in soft soil as its battery fades away, with the finale of the work being Opportunity driving off into the Martian sunset.

Quote from: JohnL on Sep 14, 2017, 12:01PMIf Cassini were a person, it would be looking back on a long, purposeful life, hopefully with a great sense of pride and accomplishment. More bittersweet than simply sad.

Maybe someone should write an opera - though I think the Mars rovers might make a better story.

The Mars Pathfinder mission would be the prologue, ending with the Sojourner rover still "alive" but cut after after its base unit died. After that, it would follow the twins Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit's story would end with the rover stuck in soft soil as its battery fades away, with the finale of the work being Opportunity driving off into the Martian sunset.

Throw in some cross-dressing and mistaken identity and you're on to something. Or on something.

From the set of things you didn't know were still out there...

STYX|NASA CAssini

https://www.youtube.com/v/FrhIVGbCOwM

Cassini has been my favorite probe to keep tabs on. Incredible stuff. 

Last Look at Enceladus. Enceladus has an ice jet spouting at the bottom

Wonder if that ice jet has any effect on Enceladus' orbit.  Something for the astrophysicists to ponder until we get back there.

Enceladus has a jet pack and we're still waiting for ours. 

Fun fact: the spelling correction suggestion for "Enceladus" is "Enchiladas".

Quote from: robcat2075 on Sep 14, 2017, 06:47PMFun fact: the spelling correction suggestion for "Enceladus" is "Enchiladas".

Tada!!  A taco stand on every corner!

Another remarkable video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D6UWHZ_HYs

R.I.P. Cassini.   

I got up just in time to see the end. They had a display showing two radio signals, X band and S band, each with a spike in the middle.

First one went flat, and then the other. End of Mission.

Quote from: robcat2075 on Sep 15, 2017, 06:25AMEnd of Mission.

But apparently sufficient data remaining to be analyzed for the next several years! 

Way to go JPL! 

Fun facts...

-Cassini was the first deep space probe with an SSD. 4 Gbits or about half a gigabyte. Pretty good for a mid 90s build. My SSD today is only 256Mbytes. Prior probes, including the still-functional Voyagers, used tape drives to store data until it could be downloaded to Earth.

-More than half its original 12,288 lb weight was 6890 lbs of propellant. But they made that last 20 years.

-The bit rate during the last phase of the mission was 27kbps or about what dial-up internet from AOL was when it was launched.

-After it was launched, someone figured out that it hadn't been designed right to relay data from the Huygens probe it was going to drop on Titan. They managed to compensate by changing the flight path and drop off point. I hope someone got an employee of the  month award for that save!

The last photo:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170916.html

I'm sure there are a whole bunch of others on APOD. 

The last photo:

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170916.html

I'm sure there are a whole bunch of others on APOD.