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Comment by hanklazard | Hacker News Reader

I've read a few accounts of this mission's end and, not to be dramatic, but I have actually been moved to tears by the thought of this probe using its last energy to point it's antenna toward earth as it melts in the atmosphere. Yes, it's just some hardware but it feels so poetic to me. This sort of accomplishment gives me hope in our species--a true triumph of science that I feel fortunate to have witnessed.

Also, for anyone who hasn't seen it, Cassini's Twitter feed has had a ton of great content over the pat few years (@CassiniSaturn).

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Not unlike the Terminator being lowered into a vat of molten steel and using his last moment to make a thumbs up.

The NYtimes has a remarkable page of images taken by Cassini (moons and saturn). Space being stark and empty is strangely movingly beautiful sometimes.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/14/science/cassi...

Their recent video is cool also https://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000005343498/cassin...

The writing of the narration was really excellent: "Some of Cassini's orbits took it behind Saturn, an alien sunset before hours of darkness".

The six sided hexagon hurricane on the top of Saturn was the most fascinating to me, especially when they superimposed the size of earth over it saying it could "swallow 4 earths"...

It's weird, isn't it? I had the same feeling listening to the announcer on NPR mention it this morning. It's like, "here's this one last useful thing I can do before I go to certain death."

Wont happen so dramatically. By the time anything is melting the aero forces will have far exceeded the probe's ability to point. It will start with a very slow tumble, breaking contact. The spinning and destructive heating will come some minutes (hours?) later. Of course, due to distance, by the time we see the break in contact the probe will be gone, allowing the op's careful language re timings to make it seem like everything will happen at once.

I still think someone within this community could make this into a dramatic short film.

There is one https://vimeo.com/210782375

The problem is the only thing we have capable of witnessing this event is the thing experiencing it.

i bet you're fun at parties.

If this moves you, you will certainly enjoy the documentary "The Farthest" about the Voyager missions. You can stream it on PBS.

It is very bittersweet, the near future does not look promising for multi function probes like Cassini. NASA looks to be sending less "risky" probes from here on out. Cassini was a huge engineering success given the possible outcomes.

Agreed about the hope for our species.

As a species and as individuals we're capable of such astounding accomplishments like this; yet also capable of outstandingly in(s)ane idiocy.

How can society be arranged/evolved to encourage the former, and limit the latter? Is such a thing possible? Desirable?

The lack of societal optimization, or even moving towards the optimal, frustrates me!

I still think the key is raising the collective intelligence. Not that smart people are always productive, but they are capable of being so.

So long as the average human is just barely sapient, we aren't going to be collectively achieving much. It's always exceptional individuals who have great achievements.

Average people don't really do much. Nothing personal against being average, of course, it's just not sufficient for great achievement.

I think intelligence augmentation, such as neural lace and Neuralink, is a step in the right direction.

"If you chase away my demons, my angels might leave, too."

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