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Can't believe it's been 10 years already. I still fresh rememeber the long night on #space IRC channel counting down the Titan descent and visualising the first

by ccozan 12y ago

Can't believe it's been 10 years already. I still fresh rememeber the long night on #space IRC channel counting down the Titan descent and visualising the first transmitted data ( good job, Rene Pascal! ). Seeing the alien landscape for the first time gave me shivers and made me think I already live in the future. What is the next major event?

simcop2387 12y ago
The next one after that probably would have been the curiosity landing where I did the exact same thing, watching the countdown on NASA TV and following everything else in #space. Was incredible to see them land something so large on another planet.
bashinator 12y ago
New Horizons will be doing a close flyby of the Pluto/Charon system next year - that should be pretty good.
- mturmon 12y ago
  Yes. I was reading (http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/06/hubble-telescope-look-follow-target-pluto-bound-probe http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/06/hubble-telescope-lo...) that they got a bunch of Hubble time to look for Kuiper Belt Objects to target after they swing by Pluto. They need to know now so they can get the gravity assist correct. Given the lack of complete knowledge about the mass distribution of Pluto-Charon system, that must be a hell of a hard problem.
InclinedPlane 12y ago
Hah. I remember writing a letter to my college newspaper (which was printed) defending the launch of Cassini against anti-nuclear hysteria. Tempus fugit. Some big space stuff happening soon: Rosetta will orbit a comet and send a lander to the surface (later this year); MAVEN and MOM will reach Mars (later this year); Dawn will rendezvous with Ceres (early 2015); New Horizons will flyby Pluto-Charon (mid 2015); Akutsuki will enter Venusian orbit (late 2015); Juno will reach Jupiter (2016).
Zancarius 12y ago
I can't either. I remember feeling so excited when Cassini finally arrived. My emotions roughly echoed your own. What's incredible to me is how serene Saturn appears in the NG article in spite of the violent winds that tear through it, and the illumination of the shaded side by Saturn's rings is jaw dropping. It's difficult for me to express the feeling I have when I observe such ornate beauty, and it's something I feel every time I see these images. To say nothing of the scale of it all--which itself is difficult to imagine.

by ccozan 12y ago

simcop2387 12y ago

The next one after that probably would have been the curiosity landing where I did the exact same thing, watching the countdown on NASA TV and following everything else in #space. Was incredible to see them land something so large on another planet.

bashinator 12y ago

New Horizons will be doing a close flyby of the Pluto/Charon system next year - that should be pretty good.

mturmon 12y ago
Yes. I was reading (http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/06/hubble-telescope-look-follow-target-pluto-bound-probe http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2014/06/hubble-telescope-lo...) that they got a bunch of Hubble time to look for Kuiper Belt Objects to target after they swing by Pluto. They need to know now so they can get the gravity assist correct. Given the lack of complete knowledge about the mass distribution of Pluto-Charon system, that must be a hell of a hard problem.

InclinedPlane 12y ago

Hah. I remember writing a letter to my college newspaper (which was printed) defending the launch of Cassini against anti-nuclear hysteria. Tempus fugit. Some big space stuff happening soon: Rosetta will orbit a comet and send a lander to the surface (later this year); MAVEN and MOM will reach Mars (later this year); Dawn will rendezvous with Ceres (early 2015); New Horizons will flyby Pluto-Charon (mid 2015); Akutsuki will enter Venusian orbit (late 2015); Juno will reach Jupiter (2016).

Zancarius 12y ago

I can't either. I remember feeling so excited when Cassini finally arrived. My emotions roughly echoed your own. What's incredible to me is how serene Saturn appears in the NG article in spite of the violent winds that tear through it, and the illumination of the shaded side by Saturn's rings is jaw dropping. It's difficult for me to express the feeling I have when I observe such ornate beauty, and it's something I feel every time I see these images. To say nothing of the scale of it all--which itself is difficult to imagine.