Helium fuses into heavier elements, in a cycle which ultimately leads to carbon for Sun-mass stars, and ultimately to iron for heavier stars. IIRC, elements heavier than iron are only produced in significant quantities by supernova. Such heavy stars are all over the place, and are fairly easy to see because they are so bright; on the other hand, they are also fairly short-lived, lasting only a few million years instead of about ten billion like our sun or the hundred-billion odd years predicted for stars much lighter than the sun.
Don't forget GPS. And satellite TV. And high-speed intercontinental data backbones. And weather forecasts based on satellite imagery. Even 'failed' missions such as Beagle 2 resulted in significant scientific advances (in that particular case, reducing the size of a mass spectrometer from the size of two desks to something the size of a Kirk-era tricorder prop).
They do have very long lifespans, but "very long" does not mean eternal: the ion drive was running for the equivalent of 6 continuous months, which is a very long time indeed compared to the 6 minutes or so of the chemical engines that got the probe outside of our atmosphere.
Slashdot Mirror
Helium fuses into heavier elements, in a cycle which ultimately leads to carbon for Sun-mass stars, and ultimately to iron for heavier stars. IIRC, elements heavier than iron are only produced in significant quantities by supernova. Such heavy stars are all over the place, and are fairly easy to see because they are so bright; on the other hand, they are also fairly short-lived, lasting only a few million years instead of about ten billion like our sun or the hundred-billion odd years predicted for stars much lighter than the sun.
Finally, it's good to see a company taking security seriously!
That said, and this isn't their fault, I'm cynical about the claim that credit card data wasn't compromised...
Don't forget GPS. And satellite TV. And high-speed intercontinental data backbones. And weather forecasts based on satellite imagery. Even 'failed' missions such as Beagle 2 resulted in significant scientific advances (in that particular case, reducing the size of a mass spectrometer from the size of two desks to something the size of a Kirk-era tricorder prop).
They do have very long lifespans, but "very long" does not mean eternal: the ion drive was running for the equivalent of 6 continuous months, which is a very long time indeed compared to the 6 minutes or so of the chemical engines that got the probe outside of our atmosphere.