Dear Readers,
Below is an important email sent out today by Jonathan Mark of the Post Cassini Flyby News web site. We thank him.
As noted in the full ABC news article (also shown below), Cassini is having problems with one of its "reaction wheels". There are four reaction wheels on most spacecraft, including Cassini. They spin at high rates of speed, and are used to steer the spacecraft be speeding the wheels up or slowing them down.
You need at least three reaction wheels because the spacecraft needs to be maneuvered in three dimensions in space, and each one can only re-orient the space probe along one axis. Four is the normal number, which gives the probe one spare reaction wheel which can partially substitute for any of the others, in conjunction with the other two that continue to work.
The loss (or potential loss) of a reaction wheel so soon into its journey -- comparatively soon, that is, for it is still a long, long way from its destination (Saturn) -- can be extremely serious for the Cassini mission, for when Cassini finally gets to Saturn, it will have to do a lot of maneuvering in order to achieve its scientific goals. For example dozens and dozens of orbital loops around Saturn are planned. Its ability to maneuver could be significantly compromised (efficiency will decrease, if nothing else), and if another reaction wheel is lost, the probe will have to rely on thrusters, which have fairly limited fuel supplies (that's why they stopped the research mission around Jupiter when the reaction wheel failed -- to conserve thruster fuel). If the thruster fuel runs out, the probe then would become virtually uncontrollable in at least one plane (one axis), such that it might be flung BACK TOWARDS EARTH in a random "unexpected" (by NASA) gravity-assist with some of the heavenly bodies it passes near -- Saturn itself and its moons, or in just a few days -- Jupiter.
This is a very serious incident and NASA/JPL doesn't want the world to take notice, but we SHOULD all be demanding that NASA redirect Cassini RIGHT NOW while it still can be done, into Jupiter and be done with it. Once it's impacted Jupiter Cassini can't come back and impact us.
SEND CASSINI SMASHING INTO JUPITER TODAY!!!
Below are NASA contact points for demanding that Cassini be destroyed by smashing it into Jupiter.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
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Webmaster, STOP CASSINI web site
Home page of our STOP CASSINI movement:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
(Beware of imitations!)
NASA CONTACT INFORMATION:
Cassini Public Information
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011 or (818) 354-6478
Here's NASA's "comments" email address: comments@www.hq.nasa.gov
Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address:
daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov
or
dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov
Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html
Here's some NASA email addresses of people who have spoken about Cassini or otherwise are involved in NASA's reacting to public opinion (by squashing and ignoring public dissent, mostly):
"Roger Launius" roger.launius@hq.nasa.gov
"Steve Garber" steve.garber@hq.nasa.gov
"Fred Gregory" fgregory@hq.nasa.gov
whill@hq.nasa.gov
prutledg@hq.nasa.gov
"Brian Welch, NASA HQ PAO" bwelch@mail.hq.nasa.gov
OOSA@unov.un.or.at
"Sandra M. Dawson" sandra.m.dawson@jpl.nasa.gov
Cassini@jpl.nasa.gov
"Charles S. Morris" csm@encke.jpl.nasa.gov
"David F. Doody" david.f.doody@jpl.nasa.gov
history@lists.hq.nasa.gov
"Leslie J. Deutsch" leslie.j.deutsch@jpl.nasa.gov
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.
END OF NASA CONTACT INFORMATION
INCOMING EMAIL FROM JONATHAN MARK:
To: Post Cassini Flyby News noflyby@yahoo.com
From: Post Cassini Flyby News noflyby@yahoo.com
Subject: Cassini maneuvering glitch has halted Jupiter studies
Post Cassini Flyby News
Editor - Jonathan Mark noflyby@yahoo.com
P.O. Box 1999 Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
21 December 2000
Dear friends,
Long time Cassini NoFlyby and Flyby News subscriber, Paul, just alerted me about a news story on a maneuvering glitch that has halted Jupiter studies on the Cassini space craft's flight to explore Saturn and moons. Whatever information and results this probe may achieve, they can never be worthy of the costs and risks to human and other life. For background on Cassini and its hair raising Earth flyby, see:
http://www.nonviolence.org/noflyby .
* * * * * *
The Associated Press
P A S A D E N A, Calif., Dec. 21 — NASA suspended the Cassini spacecraft’s observations of Jupiter because of a problem with a maneuvering system.
Cassini had been sending back images and other scientific data about Jupiter as it moves toward Saturn and its moon Titan on a $3.4 billion, U.S.-European mission. Observations were halted Wednesday after one of the spacecraft’s four “reaction wheels” experienced problems, causing Cassini to switch to a different maneuvering system..
For the full Story check the following url:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/cassini_problems001221.html
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END OF EMAIL FROM JONATHAN MARK
ABC NEWS ARTICLE ABOUT CASSINI'S PROBLEM:
Maneuvering Glitch Cassini Spacecraft Halts Jupiter StudiesThe Associated Press
P A S A D E N A, Calif., Dec. 21 — NASA suspended the Cassini spacecraft’s observations of Jupiter because of a problem with a maneuvering system.
Cassini had been sending back images and other scientific data about Jupiter as it moves toward Saturn and its moon Titan on a $3.4 billion, U.S.-European mission.
Observations were halted Wednesday after one of the spacecraft’s four “reaction wheels” experienced problems, causing Cassini to switch to a different maneuvering system. Problems Began Sunday Cassini’s wheels can point the spacecraft in any desired direction by taking advantage of the law of physics that each action has an opposite reaction. When an electric motor spins one of Cassini’s wheels, the spacecraft rotates in the opposite direction.
The problem surfaced Sunday when the No. 2 reaction wheel began to need extra force to turn, and the spacecraft reacted by automatically switching from electricity to a hydrazine thrusting system to maneuver. The hydrazine must be conserved for the primary mission at Saturn, according to officials at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which manages the mission for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the European and Italian space agencies.
Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell said the situation was improving because the wheel functioned properly in a test Tuesday. “If things go favorable for us from now on for the rest of the testing that we’re doing it’s conceivable that we’d be back up and running in a week to 10 days,” he said.
Engineers don’t know what caused the problem but speculation has centered on the possibility that some type of material got into the wheel mechanism and then either wore down or was spit out, Mitchell said. Since its 1997 launch, Cassini has flown by Earth once and Venus twice, each time using gravity to gain speed and change direction as it heads for Saturn. Its closest approach to Jupiter — at a distance of 6 million miles — takes place Dec. 30. []
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
END OF ABC NEWS ARTICLE
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Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
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