There really is something emotionally compelling about space probes in general.
Anyway cassini is gonna dive into saturn on the 15th, after orbiting the planet since 2004.
As Cassini enters the atmosphere, the attitude control thrusters are gonna do their very best to keep the antenna pointing towards earth, transmitting data as for long as is possible to send. I think that's really beautiful
@starkatt I completely agree tbh. I wish that we could keep Cassini (and other spacecraft) in parking orbits till we have the tech to come and build museums around them ;_;
@starkatt Ah, nodnod! Is it still the plan to deorbit the ISS at its EOL? That one I especially wish we'd boost into a parking orbit tbh. (Given that it's a huge piece of our space faring history)
@StarshipAmelia I don't know what EoL for ISS looks like.
@StarshipAmelia One of the alternate end-of-mission plans was to send Cassini into a solar orbit but apparently that wasn't expected to have as much scientific value.