Cassini Celebrates a Decade in Orbit Around Saturn

Re:Cassini Celebrates a Decade in Orbit Around Saturn by Titanbase on Monday June 30, 2014 @02:08PM (#7966547)

I'm shocked something hasn't hit the spacecraft yet and obliterated it. It's been great to see the photographs from out there!

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Re:Cassini Celebrates a Decade in Orbit Around Saturn by ceejayoz on Monday June 30, 2014 @02:15PM (#7966583)

Space is big, and as such, things that'd hit a spacecraft hard enough to do damage are few and far between. I'm not aware of a single spacecraft in history being disabled by naturally occurring debris.

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Re:Cassini Celebrates a Decade in Orbit Around Saturn by Zancarius on Monday June 30, 2014 @03:59PM (#7967297)

I believe Cassini also flew through a gap in the outer rings during its initial positioning, using the communications dish as a shield against residual dust. There was also a recording released that transposed the energy dispersed from the impacts into audible noise. I'll see if I can find it.

Edit: Here we go. Info [1] and sound [2]

[1] http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Cassini-Huyg...

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rrc5pxRdLc

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