<![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> Casini IS a joint NASA/ESA mission, no? [en.wikipedia.org]

lever2k

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> 30 miles? That IS pretty darn close. And the results will be A-MAYYY-ZING.

IrisMR

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> @Ryan H:

It's not actually the Imperial System, it's just similar. For example, the Imperial Gallon and the U.S. Gallon aren't the same.
-Kle.


Klebert L. Hall

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> @tetracycloide:
Actually, NASA does do the same. The problem in the past has been that some of the contractors they use in the US still use metric. That's what happened with the Mars Climate Orbiter. Lockheed Martin wrote all their software with the assumption that the given instructions would be in Imperial units.

Does anyone else find it ironic that the last significant country in the world to use the Imperial system of measure is the United States of America? Didn't they have a revolution or something to get away from all that British nonsense?

Ryan H

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> @codydog: if only NASA would do the same

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> @tetracycloide: They're European. Perhaps they can cope. I think they have English measurements in a museum someplace.

codydog

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> Err, that should probably be hitting, not missing. :)

Gopherit

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> They're not too worried about missing the Moon. Cassini's been around long enough that english-to-metric units aren't a problem anymore. A sand-gain-sized ice crystal in the spacecraft's path, however, could ruin the day for a lot of people. The potential science return (better magnetometer data of the subsurface ocean,if any, getting a new limiting size or directly imaging the cracks from where the jets are emitting, higher spectral resolution of the surface, etc) is worth it, but it's the largest gamble the mission has taken so far.

Gopherit

]]> <![CDATA[Space Probe Will Have Near-Collision With Saturn Moon]]> if it requires amazing technical finesse let's hope they sucessfuly converted from english to metric...

tetracycloide

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