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To: TigersEye
That would be quite a ride down into a gas giant.

My dream is of the rings. When Cassini-Huygens was on the way, I naively supposed that it would get down there and give real closeup shots of them. After arrival, though, when the itinerary was laid out in the popular press, there was no such thing in the offing, and the reason was apparent. It costs as much energy to descend into a gravitational well as it does to ascend out of it. The closest approach to the ring was a one time thing when the orbit was being shaped, and took a steep elliptical form. Once it was rounded out, it was much higher than the rings, and at this point it became impossible to go any deeper, due to fuel limitations.

They have a very good vantage point, of course, but there is no prospect of visual closeups of the actual ring particles, like we see in artists conceptions. This was and remains a real disappoint to me, even though the rewards of the Cassini-Huygens mission are otherwise ample, most particularly the landing of Huygens on Titan, 'cause if that doesn't capture your imagination, I don't know what.

9 posted on 10/28/2010 12:59:26 AM PDT by dr_lew
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To: dr_lew
So much to explore so costly to do it. I think we await another Einstein or Tesla-like mind to break through on the energy front. Or perhaps another aspect of physics that allows us to cut the costs and time dramatically.

A permanent base on one of Saturn or Jupiter's moons sounds a little more interesting than Mars.

10 posted on 10/28/2010 1:16:30 AM PDT by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/28/08 and why?)
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To: dr_lew

Until we can reach speeds close to the speed of light, similar to all of the sci-fi shows, cheaply & easily, we will continue to ride a 20” Huffy bicycle from NY to LA when it comes to space travel.


16 posted on 10/28/2010 4:03:34 AM PDT by rickb308 (Nothing good ever came from someone yelling "Allah Snackbar")
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To: dr_lew
My dream is of the rings.

My dream is of Europa or Enceladus. That's where liquid water is most likely to be found and hence, life.

24 posted on 10/28/2010 5:40:09 AM PDT by John the Savage
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