Cassini's Last Photos Will Be Spectacular | Hacker News Reader

Cassini's Last Photos Will Be Spectacular

bloomberg.com

60 pointsadventured13 comments

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This short video from NASA about Cassini's Grand Finale is worth watching!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrGAQCq9BMU

I have to admit I was glued on my seat for a few minutes. 10 days.

It's been made by Erik Wernquist which also made wanderers and new horizons a must watch for anyone.

https://vimeo.com/erikwernquist

He also made the "crazy frog" animation

Wow, I think that's the single best space video I have ever seen. I'm wiping away a few tears even as I type this.

I was working at JPL during the 1990s when Cassini was being assembled so I actually got to see it with my own eyes before it launched. This feels like losing an old friend.

The production value alone was incredible. I was expecting to see a Directed by Christopher Nolan at the end.

I have mixed feelings about these videos. I mean can reality match up? If more people like the illusion than the real thing what is the incentive to do the real thing...maybe this marketing stuff is reqd though...idk.

"Nevertheless, this moon might have the right stuff to provide the complex chemistry that's needed to create a suitable environment for life."

"...tides and radioactive elements, which could provide important catalysts for the development of life. Future missions to Enceladus can be designed to look for evidence of life..."

Oh jeez get over it will ya? Life life life. How living-centric of you. Check your alive privilege.

OK I'm joking about that part, but surely there must be a few good reasons to explore space besides whatever it has to do with life and the support thereof? Is an ocean of liquid methane not interesting in its own right?

I genuinely wonder whether people who write like this are going to be totally disappointed and give up space exploration if they find there's no life out there. Which (let's be honest) is what they will probably find. Or is it more that they're trying to pander to the reader because they think that's all we care about?

Well, to look for life is one of the strategic objectives of NASA's science mission directorate.

I've searched, and cannot find an official reference to a strategic objective searching for life. https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/codez/stratplans/1996/vision....

I am incredibly excited about such missions and love reading/following them but really, why "should" we explore space?

Edit: Let me clarify why I ask this, I had once seen some documentary where a marine biologist makes a point something to the effect of - we understand less about our deep oceans than space, but there is a huge delta in our research spending on each. So, why are certain fields more important for research than others, in short, why space?

Because great discovery has no roadmap.

When the Electron was discovered it was useless, and now it runs our entire world. Who can say where undirected research and exploration may lead us?

Oh man that's a big question. I suppose on the most basic level my answer would be something like "To pay due heed to the human trait of curiosity." Which doesn't say much, and deliberately so!

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