Cassini probe at Saturn... (warning -- large images!)

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That's showing when Saturn was used as a golf ball and landed in the biggest sand trap in the universe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

just been watching ESA/NASA webcast - they reported possible data not relayed back from cassini until >7pm GMT now...
(er i think - have heard so many different timescales & reference zones today i'm somwhat confused now)

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 14:22 (twenty-one years ago)

as can be seen by the speeling

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Right, I now feel really stupid. As I was scrolling down really quick to the bottom of the page I got a quick glimpse of that BBC image and thought "OH WOW! HOPW COOL DOES THAT LOOK!" Then I used my eyes and brane to read and realised that this sadly wasn't true.

John Humphries was making a big deal about "tangerine seas" this morning, and if there isn't a tangerine sea and marmalade sky in these photos I am gonna be so disappointed.

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Friday, 14 January 2005 14:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Is the webcast page cassini.capcave.com? Keep trying to get into it now I'm at work and no luck (unsurprisingly).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, switched to NASA-TV via RealPlayer but I'm not getting any video! I am getting audio, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

that's the one i'm using ned - but using windows mediaplayer
am surprised how good quality it is

latest time revision for possible data = approx 1715 CET / 1615 GMT

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Bother, in that I'm actually stuck at the front desk here as my student has mysteriously not appeared, and therefore cannot run said program at this computer.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 15:49 (twenty-one years ago)

ESOC command centre has expectant crowds of staff milling around at consoles...

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

YA BEAUTY

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

WAH! I am seriously hoping this student of mine has a really good reason for not being here, otherwise I will be of the extremely peeved.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:21 (twenty-one years ago)

it'll be 2-3 more hours before they can decipher anything presentable though ned
(assuming that it is valid data and the lens cap still isn't on etc.)

looks like announcement about to be made...

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Right, sounds good. I do at last have video running if not audio, I see press milling around...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I wonder how long it will take before ice monsters ransack Huygens.

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

My bet is methane dragons,.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

So what's the woman in camo gear saying? "Our plan to tour Titan with a reconstituted lineup of Echo and the Bunnymen circa Heaven Up Here is now in effect..."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:35 (twenty-one years ago)

'...WE ARE THE FIRST VEESEETORS OF TITAN...'

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:37 (twenty-one years ago)

caseenee iz sending ze data.

― Jarlr'mai (jarlrmai), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:38 (twenty-one years ago)

mind you at least he can speak 2 languages instead of

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

less than 1

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

FIRST PICTURES PROBABLY AT 1945 GMT !

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

*calculates* About two hours from now...cool.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

awwww
I want to go to saturn now

― MY FAVOURITE LIGHTER IS CHEESEBURGER (trigonalmayhem), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

and i'll be on the train when the press conference is happening :(

bbc news24 is going to be watched to within an inch of its life when i get home

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Got NASA TV up here and still waiting patiently

― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I have the audio turned down low, I heard some rebroadcast of a Bush speech from last year and was feeling tetchy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Give us a heads up when it's about to go on. My cable company no longer carries NASA-TV. :( I do have a high-speed connection at home, though, now, so maybe I can watch it there.

― Yr3k (dymaxia), Friday, 14 January 2005 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

NASA TV just switched over to Saturn news.

― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

What would ILM have looked like during Geraldo's Al Capone's vault special?

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean ILx. Someone show me some pictures already.

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm just getting a 'switching live' image, is there any actual coverage yet?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, I see the ESA control room and a bunch of people standing around waiting...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay, a promo video!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Man, I can't see anything. Crap. :(

― Yr3k (dymaxia), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh wait, here we go...a very proper German is saying something proper.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't want to see people applauding an image, I want the image!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Whoa -- okay, that first one is already sweet! Rivers and maybe an ocean!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Fucking fuck, though, the talking head hoohah is lame. The dude speaking French is cool, though.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Dudes, I should say.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, that's it for now, but I believe there will be a further report in two hours time. Darn, I'll be on the desk again! Oh well, at least I'll see some video.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/TECH/space/01/14/huygens.titan/top.main.titan.shoreline.jpg

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 14 January 2005 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

On the ground:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_01_H.jpg

Higher up than the midrange shot:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/landing_02_H.jpg

More photos and reports soon.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 14 January 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

JPL's site is getting swamped at the moment, but http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html is OK

― Gator Magoon (Chris Barrus), Friday, 14 January 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Listen to Titan! Specifically the atmosphere, more details here.

A 360 view from about 8 kilometers up.

A smaller section of same:

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/Picture2.jpg

And the first color ground image.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 15 January 2005 15:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Sounds of an alien world (sort of).

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 15 January 2005 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

But but but I just linked that page!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 15 January 2005 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh. Duh. Sorry.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Saturday, 15 January 2005 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

if there isn't a tangerine sea and marmalade sky in these photos I am gonna be so disappointed

I guess you can say you weren't disappointed!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 17 January 2005 04:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay, first press conference held about going over the findings, more here.

Another view of that 'coastline' area:

ihttp://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/cassini_huygens/huygens_land/press_release_050120/HRICoastLineMoasic_H.jpg

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

human exploration at this level is so cool.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 21 January 2005 15:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 193 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

Melodramatic, but he's earned it

I made the mistake of imagining what it would be like to be Cassini, watching Saturn grow larger & larger, sending my discoveries home...
— Bobak Ferdowsi (@tweetsoutloud) September 14, 2017

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 September 2017 05:10 (eight years ago)

And there it went...

― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 15 September 2017 11:57 (eight years ago)

RIP big man

― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 15 September 2017 12:06 (eight years ago)

Thx & RIP

― StanM, Friday, 15 September 2017 12:26 (eight years ago)

the nytimes link james posted has some truly breathtaking images, holy shit

rip cassini, you had a hell of an eye for photography

― here's how **takes sip of duck urine** economics works (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 September 2017 12:38 (eight years ago)

Was asleep when it happened, but maybe for the best.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 15 September 2017 13:28 (eight years ago)

Can anyone explain the process behind transmitting these amazing images back to earth?

― calstars, Friday, 15 September 2017 14:33 (eight years ago)

cassini was towing an ethernet cable hardwired to a computer in houston iirc

― here's how **takes sip of duck urine** economics works (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:36 (eight years ago)

once it got past mars the lag meant it couldn't play a decent round of doom anymore

― here's how **takes sip of duck urine** economics works (bizarro gazzara), Friday, 15 September 2017 14:36 (eight years ago)

For calstars, copied from an actually useful yahoo answers page:

By radio waves. The transmission is programmed into the computers on Cassini at a particular time and the receiving stations of the Deeps Space network are ready to receive the data stream 46 hours later.

"...The Cassini spacecraft is supported by two major components of the JPL's Interplanetary Network Directorate (IND).

Telecommunications and data acquisition support is provided by the NASA Deep Space Network, the world's largest, most sensitive spacecraft communications network. The DSN consists of three deep space communications complexes located approximately 120 degrees of longitude apart around the world: at Goldstone, California; near Madrid, Spain; and near Canberra, Australia. This placement permits continuous communication with deep space spacecraft. The DSN supports Earth orbiter spacecraft communications, as well as, radio and radar astronomy observations for the exploraton of the solar system and the universe.

The DSN provides the vital two-way communications link that guides and controls the Cassini spacecraft. The DSN 34-meter-diameter (112-foot) and 70-meter-diameter antennas are precision pointed, high-gain, parabolic reflector antennas with high power transmitters and ultra low noise (3 Kelvin operating temperature) amplifiers. Each deep space communication complex provides capabilities required to perform telemetry data processing including signal reception and amplification, signal demodulation and decoding, and data packet extraction. A capability to control the spacecraft via commands received from the Cassini project and transmitted from the DSN using 20 kilowatt transmitters is provided. Precision navigation is provided by measurements of signal phase and generation of range data which make use of the ultrastable frequency and timing capabilities of the DSN. All DSN complexes are linked to JPL via a world-wide communications network.

Cassini is also supported by IND's Advanced Multimission Operations System. Known as AMMOS, this system provides a common set of mission operations services and tools to the Cassini mission, as well as to other JPL spaceflight projects. They include capabilities which enable Cassini engineers to do mission planning and analysis, develop pre-planned sets of commands to the spacecraft, perform trajectory calculations for navigating the spacecraft, and process telemetry data (i.e., downlink data from the spacecraft). The AMMOS also provides capabilities for the Cassini Flight team to display and analyze key measurements, such as readings of temperature, pressure, and power, from the spacecraft. Other mission operations services include simulation of telemetry and command data, data management and retrieval of all data types used by the Cassini project, and data archiving.

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:39 (eight years ago)

Brilliant. I will have to read that several times before it makes sense. I didn't know radio waves could carry imagery.

Cheers James!

― calstars, Saturday, 16 September 2017 02:45 (eight years ago)

radio can carry anything digital

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 16 September 2017 03:02 (eight years ago)

I want to visit the Canberra DSN post now, if I ever get to travel there again

― El Tomboto, Saturday, 16 September 2017 03:03 (eight years ago)

Nice in-house profile of members of the team and the build-up to the end.

https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/news/3122/cassinis-family-takes-the-plunge/

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 16 September 2017 03:57 (eight years ago)

Can anyone explain...

The telemetry downlink speed wasn't terrible. 14.2 baud, during Saturn orbit phase, if I'm reading this correctly. A state of the art 1991 phone modem.

― Special Egyptian Guest Star (Sanpaku), Saturday, 16 September 2017 05:19 (eight years ago)

Oops, 14400 kbit/s.

By comparison, New Horizons, sending back the data from its Pluto flyby, and using both antennas, was limited to 2000 bits per second. Your 1995 AOL dial-up was 28 times faster. Space porn requires patience.

― Special Egyptian Guest Star (Sanpaku), Saturday, 16 September 2017 05:25 (eight years ago)

one year passes...

Emptying out the Cassini conference room. (thread)

This is the ⁦@CassiniSaturn⁩ - VIMS Operations Center (read: conference room). For the rest of the month, my job is to dismantle it - making sure the stuff that needs to be destroyed gets destroyed, sorting out the rest. This is going to be fun! pic.twitter.com/fiPQxfRr2e
— Emily J (@EmExAstris) September 5, 2019

― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 12 September 2019 20:59 (six years ago)

two years pass...

Somebody just pointed me to this page, maybe it’s already mentioned upthread or elsewhere:
https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

― Solaris Ocean Blue (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 13 February 2022 16:47 (four years ago)

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