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Cassini's Iapetus Flyby

Posted by samzenpus on from the to-the-moon dept.

cupofjoe writes "The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is reporting on the Cassini spacecraft's recent close flyby of the Saturnian moon Iapetus, highlighting images taken from distances 100 times closer than the Voyager 2 flyby in 1981. Near real-time images were shown to Cassini mission team members in a presentation at JPL yesterday, during which a pre-recorded message from Arthur C. Clarke was played to the audience. Clarke wished them luck on the flyby, reminding all present that he had included a pretty accurate description of Iapetus in the original 1968 text of "2001: A Space Odyssey", years before Voyager made its flyby."

10 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. I'm not BadPunGuy by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Funny

    But I'd love to hear the impetus to check out Iapetus after taking that turn at Saturn. The tan tie of Titan and...

    Oh fuck off. I haven't slept in days.

  2. Odd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The spacecraft went into safe mode for the first time in four years directly after the Iapetus survey. NASA blames in on a cosmic ray. I think aliens have just captured the spacecraft and deleted/faked the important data.

    1. Re:Odd by Cassius+Corodes · · Score: 2, Funny

      Maybe it wasn't shut down properly last time?

      --
      Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
    2. Re:Odd by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny
      The good news: the probe took pictures from 100 times closer than Voyager.

      The bad news: all the pictures came back at 640x480 resolution with 4-bit color depth, and had the words "Safe Mode" superimposed over each of the four corners.

  3. Good ol' ACC... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clarke wished them luck on the flyby, reminding all present that he had included a pretty accurate description of Iapetus in the original 1968 text of "2001: A Space Odyssey", years before Voyager made its flyby.
    Just in case they forgot it wasn't all about them...
    1. Re:Good ol' ACC... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Probably because we should attempt no landings there.

  4. safe mode? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Cassini shutdown into safe mode... hmm didn't know it ran windows.

    1. Re:safe mode? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      yeah, though if it ran Linux, it would freeze trying to get into safe mode, and then tell you on the screen that you don't have a graphics card.

  5. Re:Pictures of Iapetus, eh? by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1, Funny

    Here's hoping it didn't blink!

    Much more educational for us if it does blink.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  6. Odd... by argStyopa · · Score: 2, Funny

    Doesn't anyone find it funny that Cassini was *allegedly* hit by a cosmic ray event that tripped it into safe mode JUST as it was sliding around Iapetus?

    The last time this happened was 4 years ago.

    Coincidence? Ask Beagle! /tinfoil hat

    --
    -Styopa