Cassini probe's death dive to send data at just 27 kilobits per second

Cassini probe's death dive to send data at just 27 kilobits per second

7 years ago
Anonymous $wKBR2uNMvM

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/13/cassini_finale_at_27_kilobits_per_second/

Space is nasty and sending data across 83 light-minutes of it isn't easy, so the Cassini probe's death dive into the clouds of Saturn will be an instruments-only affair undocumented by photographs.

Cassini's surveyed Saturn since 2004 but is out of fuel, so will be crashed into Saturn instead of leaving it an an orbit that could one day see it collide with the gas giant's moons. Mission boffins decided such a collision was unacceptable because it would pollute places like Enceladus, a moon known to have an ocean and thought to be a candidate for hosting life.