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Cassini Can See Cleary Now

Posted by timothy on from the smudges-on-my-glasses dept.

EccentricAnomaly writes: "Well, it looks like Cassini's camera problems have been fixed according this story at CNN and this Cassini mission status report. The haze first appeared on the camera lens somewhere between Jupiter and Saturn. Personally, I can't stand it when I get crud on my windshield -- especially when I'm 750 million miles from home."

22 comments

  1. Cute by ObviousGuy · · Score: 1

    They hit the defroster.

    Now back to taking purty pictures.

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
  2. it was the aliens by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they didn't want us takin' pictures of their giant outpost

  3. Proof that Cassini can see Cleary now,. by Triskaidekaphobia · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Here are some picures of Cleary taken by Cassini just yesterday. Good, aren't they?

    1. Re:Proof that Cassini can see Cleary now,. by No_Weak_Heart · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      According to the new /. story duplication policy, this story will be reposted by a different editor in a couple of hours. Hopefully they'll fix the spelling error in the dupe. Nice pics BTW.

    2. Re:Proof that Cassini can see Cleary now,. by mmaddox · · Score: 3, Funny

      I was hoping this was Beverly Cleary. I want another Mouse and the Motorcycle book.

      --

      What'dya mean there's no BLINK tag!?

  4. Awesome! by tswinzig · · Score: 4, Funny

    Now only if you could type clearly as well.

    --

    "And like that ... he's gone."
  5. Cassini, and it's headlines, inside story history by EvilBastard · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Page 1 : PLUTONIUM POWERED PROBE COULD KILL BILLIONS IF EXPLODED ON TAKEOFF
    Page 7 : It didn't.

    Page 1 : EARTH COULD BE HIT BY PLUTONIUM PROBE FLYBY AND KILL EVERYONE
    Page 9 : Missed us.

    Page 1 : BILLION DOLLAR PLUTONIUM PROBE BLINDED
    Page 11 : We fixed it.

  6. Re:Cassini, and it's headlines, inside story histo by JetScootr · · Score: 1

    Concerning the "Plutonium power supply":http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Hu man.Exploration.and.Development.of.Space/Human.Spa ce.Flight/Shuttle/Shuttle.Missions/Flight.031.STS- 34/Galileos.Power.Supply/RTG.Fact.Sheet
    Sorry for the long URL.
    This documents the history of Radioisotope Thermalelectric Generators, including accidents (Such as Apollo 13) in which the RTG has actually been splashed. In one case, the RTG was recovered and its fuel reused.

    --
    Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
  7. Nice pics by AstroMage · · Score: 2, Informative

    To appreciate the nice pictures taken by Cassini, check out its website gallery. I especially liked the artwork section. While nor real pictures, they are still very nice... :-)

  8. Ordo Malleus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    "Save us all some time, and READ YOUR OWN WEBSITE, mmmmkay?

    UPDATE: This story has also now disappeared from Sla$hdot!! Whatever!!"

    And for this he is modded down. Who will watch the watchdogs?

  9. Why Not Windshield Wipers? by gdyas · · Score: 2

    I know it sounds like a dumb joke, but really -- why not a set of high-tech, NASA-designed windshield wipers for when stuff like this happens again to the optics on a satellite?

    Other satellites are sure to run into interstellar crud in the future, so they could possibly have a lens-cleaning apparatus as well as a lens cover, like for Hubble.

    I'm sure some engineer up there has already thought of this but I'd figure I'd toss it out there.

    --

    The only tool you've got against psychosis is experience.

    1. Re:Why Not Windshield Wipers? by CheshireCatCO · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The reason why not? Moving parts. There is a taboo on moving parts, in as far as they can be avoided. Moving parts can jam in the most inconvient places, rendering an instrument useless. In this case, if a wiper got caught midwipe, all the subsequent pictures would have that wiper in the middle of the image. Sort of like fingers in vacation photos, but way more expensive.

    2. Re:Why Not Windshield Wipers? by esonik · · Score: 3, Insightful

      1) It would destroy the optics. You would get scratches and the finish (anti-reflection coating and such) would also be scratched away. Basically you don't want any mechanical contact with optics.

      2) There's no space for wipers when the condensate is somewhere within the lens system and you would need a seperate wiper for each surface.

      3) The surfaces of optics are not flat but probably spheric or have some different form. It would be difficult to build a wiper for that geometry.

    3. Re:Why Not Windshield Wipers? by esonik · · Score: 1

      I forgot one point:
      4) If you have moving parts they will release tiny particles when they move due to friction (and you have a lot of friction in vacuum), causing more problems. Keep in mind that there is no gravity forcing those particles down, so they would fly around and not necessarily adsorb on the surface to be wiped away.

    4. Re:Why Not Windshield Wipers? by Observer · · Score: 3, Informative
      OK, I should have responded here instead of to the "Headlines" post.

      NASA anticipated the problem - see the paragraph about lens heaters in the mission update referenced in the story.

      Not quite windshield wipers, granted, but the agency did anticipate the problem from ealier experience, and built in a solution that had worked before and which worked this time, too.

  10. cleary by EccentricAnomaly · · Score: 2

    I accidentally hit sumbit insted od preveiw. I was hoping someone would cetch mi mistakek and fix the spelling.

    --
    There are 10 types of people in this world, those who can count in binary and those who can't.
  11. Re:Cassini, and it's headlines, inside story histo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Actually, the *very next* Titan IV launch blew itself to bits. Had this happened to Cassini, no one knows how much radioactive Plutonium would have been released. Oh, btw, Plutonium, besides being radioactive, is quite poisonous. So...no...nothing bad happened relative to Cassini's RTGs, but it is far from certain what would have happened if the launch vehicl had expoded.

  12. Re:Cassini, and it's headlines, inside story histo by JetScootr · · Score: 1

    See if you can patch together the URL in my earlier post (it's a mess- sorry) But it is for an actual NASA report on Galilleo and describes RTG fuel recovered from a weather satellite that actually did go blooey during launch. Fact is, those pellets are designed to withstand actual detonation of the entire launch vehicle with at most fracturing. They won't "vaporize" as the media likes to fret over. This stuff is as hard as steel balls in a steel vault - even a LOX cato won't turn it into confectioner's sugar. Actual experience has shown that these things really are tougher than the "black boxes" they use in commericial airliners.

    --
    Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
  13. Re:Cassini, and it's headlines, inside story histo by Observer · · Score: 2
    Actually, even better. For "We fixed it", read "We thought of this in advance and our solution worked".

    (From the mission update referenced in the story, the camera had built-in heaters to warm up the lenses in anticipation of this very problem, since warming the instruments had worked on previous missions. So the comment that suggested windscreen wipers wasn't totally off-beam....)

  14. hmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so, I suppose that we rub "suntan" lotion on our chickens? Are we ALL planning on massaging our chickens? Imagine the special treatment! One farmer massaging thousands of chickens! I suppose if one tried to peck him, he would be force to choke it. If several did so, he may have to choke several chickens. So essentially, this farmer may be needed to choke several lotioned chickens. Maybe we should give him a towel?