Cassini arriving at Saturn today

[Fore Check]

I'm a bit disappointed that I don't see any coverage of this on the NASA channel or anywhere else.

I'm sure that it would be "must see TV" in my house...

 

[NewEntity1]

I heard that bad weather in Australia was preventing downlink of data during the orbital insertion burn . It doesn't affect the burn itself, which was programmed into the craft several days ago...but it does affect live monitoring of the craft during the burn. Well, as live as a 1 hour and 23 minute trasnmission delay at the speed of light can be

 

[brianc]

Originally posted by Fore Check
I'm a bit disappointed that I don't see any coverage of this on the NASA channel or anywhere else.

Hmmm. TV Guide lists this coverage (right now, BTW)...

10:00 PM Channel 98 NASA Wednesday, 30

Cassini-Huygens Arrival at Saturn: Mission Control Commentary
190 mins.

And if you don't have NASA TV on your cable or sat.--

https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

 

[graylensman]

As you may already know, Cassini successfully entered orbit around Saturn. Turns out the weather was fine for JPL to monitor the craft.

Give the NASA channel a few days to sift through this initial data. They had Phoebe data up within the week of the Cassini fly-by.

You know, even though we're not getting much (any) manned space activity, we've got two rovers on Mars, a craft that's sampled the composition of a comet, another one that landed on an asteroid, and a platform at Saturn... these are pretty exciting times for space buffs!!

 

[Fore Check]

I just pulled this off Nasa.gov

Saturn's Sunlit Rings 07.01.04

After becoming the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit, Cassini sent back this image of a portion of the planet's rings. It shows the sunlit side of the rings.

Image credit: NASA/JPL

 

[NewEntity1]

***************CHEERS ***************



I woul crack open a bottle of champagne, but I don't have any. Beer will have to do

Meanwhile, I wait anxiously for more images to start rolling in

 

[daveyfire]

That picture is eerily beautiful. Indeed, an exciting time for us space buffs! I can't wait to see what data we start to see getting back.

 

[Steward]

I learned along time ago... Let's say you had a body of water large enough... that the planet Saturn would float...

weird...

 

[NewEntity1]

Yes, Saturn is the lowest density planet in the solar system. Mercury is the only planet with a density higher than Earth's.

Many of saturn's moons are extremily low density as well. Titan was originally thought to be low density as well (and larger)..but the Voyager craft showed it to have a density comprable to Ganymede ( I think), and to also be smaller than Ganymede.