XPost: sci.astro.amateur   
   From: muldar@zetans.org.retro.com   
      
   it still is one HUGE success. Monumental, really. Just too bad the major news   
   networks didnt even mention it or show a photo tonight.   
   This sorry state of socially irresponsible affairs in the USA must end soon.   
      
      
      
   Henry Spencer wrote:   
      
   > In article ,   
   > Glenn Mulno  wrote:   
   > >However, as I understand it that is not really why they kept the life to   
   > >only a few hours.  I think it had more to do with just getting it down   
   > >safely, the weight of the probe on Cassini, cost, and probably just the   
   > >general expectation that  conditions were not favorable to the life of the   
   > >unit being long.   
   >   
   > A long surface life would have required, at the very least, an RTG, which   
   > would have run up the cost, mass, and various other complications quite a   
   > bit.  Moreover, Huygens was planned and sold as primarily an *atmosphere*   
   > mission -- even the camera (which is a US contribution, incidentally) was   
   > optimized as much for cloud imaging and sunlight measurements as for   
   > surface pictures.   
   > --   
   > "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
   >                                 -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)