24 ms·

Probably some sort of space protection treaty once they are done funding ground operations. I too am dismayed about crashing perfectly functioning science vehic

• rietta 10y ago
  This looks like the principle "States shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies." Presumably crashing into a gas giant is considered less harmful than polluting orbit. Source: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/intr...
  • therein 10y ago
    How is having a vehicle that is hibernating and can be contacted with considered polluting the orbit? It's not like it is debris. I would see this as in fact the opposite, I would see it as the first step to colonization. Having autonomous outposts all around the solar system, orbiting various celestial bodies. Build a meshnet with them.
    • stouset 10y ago
      It's functional now. After 30 years in hibernation? Who knows. The potential science value of life on another body in our solar system is so great, it's not worth the risk. The science Cassini is capable of collecting will pale in comparison to whatever we'll have in orbit in 30 years anyway.
    • cbanek 10y ago
      One thing to remember is that any probe past Mars is almost certainly going to use an RTG over solar panels. This means that you will always have an exponentially decaying power supply (wattage goes down over time if you use it or not). This is how voyager was powered, and because of the power drain, they had to turn off more instruments as time goes on.
    • Sharlin 10y ago
      It's not like its orbit is stable in an environment like that. Eventually it's going to collide with something due to lack of fuel for maneuvering burns.