Cassini Probe Has Camera Problems

xX_sticky_Xx writes "The BBC is reporting that the last billion dollar NASA probe, Cassini, (enroute to Saturn) is suffering from an unknown source of contamination on its narrow field camera. NASA has attempted to alleviate the contamination, which is causing a haze to appear around images, by "defrosting" it, with so far limited success. Another attempt will be made in January. If this problem can't be resolved this will be extremely disappointing. Cassini is set to expand our knowledge of Saturn more than Galileo did for Jupiter."

Comments

Re:Source of contamination

[nusuth]

Maybe you're just used to using some method of inertialess propulsion to get around, in which case we'd all be really interested to hear about it.

Check woodward engine, you might find interesting. See http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/bpp/ (sorry I don't know how to make those clickable, look for research proposal about mach's principle) for credibility, james woodward's homepage http://chaos.fullerton.edu/Woodward.html for more info.

For all too lazy to floow links guys out there, woodward claims to have detected transient mass effects, which might be used for propellantless propulsion. The idea is sound and experimental confirmation is present, but the experimental values are a few orders of magnitude less than predicted. It is unclear whether the theory or experiment design is incorrect right now. Both NASA and Mr. Woodward is looking into it, though the results have been painfully slow to arrive.

Re:They have three YEARS to solve the problem

[JabberWokky]

Okay, most of the folks here seem to be bashing NASA and jumping to conclusions that the probe is lost.

Regardless, this is an *experiment* - we leaned *something* here. Either about materials in extreme cold and vacuum for years, if it is a NASA "error", or about the nature of interplanetary space if it is some sort of dust. Grant you, it's not pretty pictures, but I don't think the public even cares about pretty pictures anymore.

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Evan