114 [DFEND] SomemuttupNorth Members 287 posts 5,794 battles Report post #1 Posted September 15, 2017 As of writing, about 10 1/2 hours remain until the Cassini spacecraft conducts its final, destructive dive into the atmosphere of Saturn, completing its Grand Finale and ending a 20 year mission to Saturn and its many moons, including delivering the Huygens lander onto Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The final mission countdown can be viewed here, showing realtime data about the location and speed of Cassini https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/saturn-tour/where-is-cassini-now/ 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
822 [ARMDA] Unabletony Members 9,003 posts 5,462 battles Report post #2 Posted September 15, 2017 It may be sappy, but I somehow always feel sad for these pieces of technology, as if they were living, and not just a piece of tech. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
2,246 [SSG] WanderingGhost Alpha Tester 5,185 posts 12,001 battles Report post #3 Posted September 15, 2017 9 minutes ago, Unabletony said: It may be sappy, but I somehow always feel sad for these pieces of technology, as if they were living, and not just a piece of tech. Because someone/somegroup designed this, men and women put time into testing it, building it, making sure this worked, it helped pay for a family's meals and trips to those that worked on it, they then got it to space and have spent years working on it and reading it's data. Some involved, this may have been just a job, to others, this may have been their dream, their want's, their desires. A space craft, a ship, a building, people put their time and energy into these. These are all things that required hard work to achieve and time and effort and that it comes to an end, especially to be in essence thrown away and destroyed like just another piece of trash, yeah, it's kinda sad. And that doesn't count if you go into what some might call oddball land where you talk of in essence people literally having built a little of themselves into the project and bonds they may have with it. Similar to if you have a favourite pen or pencil that is just run of the mill or of 3 controllers in your house for your preferred system only one has the right feel and do well with, it's the same as the rest, but it feels different, writes better, only one the buttons and sticks move just the right way. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6,915 [HINON] RipNuN2 Members 13,676 posts Report post #4 Posted September 15, 2017 A new opera was written for this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
309 [P33DZ] YukikazeFortunateBeaver Members 3,878 posts 14,130 battles Report post #5 Posted September 15, 2017 ive only heard about cassini now...but it makes me so sad... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
4,225 [RLGN] Estimated_Prophet Members 14,839 posts 26,345 battles Report post #6 Posted September 15, 2017 1 hour ago, SomemuttupNorth said: As of writing, about 10 1/2 hours remain until the Cassini spacecraft conducts its final, destructive dive into the atmosphere of Saturn, completing its Grand Finale and ending a 20 year mission to Saturn and its many moons, including delivering the Huygens lander onto Titan, Saturn's largest moon. The final mission countdown can be viewed here, showing realtime data about the location and speed of Cassini https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/saturn-tour/where-is-cassini-now/ Something to do to break the monotony when I get home from work. Watched the landing of Curiosity when that happened; serious awesomeness; Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1,899 [WAIFU] pikohan [WAIFU] Members 3,614 posts 15,346 battles Report post #7 Posted September 15, 2017 4 hours ago, LycorisFubuki said: ive only heard about cassini now...but it makes me so sad... It's definitely a little sad to see it go. This thing has been around so long I remember reading about the launch in elementary school. It's mind-boggling how so much technology has come and gone in the past twenty years, but the journey of this piece of 90s tech is just as amazing today as it was in 1997. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
6,012 [SOUP] Chobittsu Modder 8,805 posts Report post #8 Posted September 15, 2017 One last image was beamed back from Cassini in the form of a .gif Share this post Link to post Share on other sites