Mr. Hoffman,
I am a master's student in engineering at the University of Illinois. I have been perusing your Stop Cassini website for a couple of months now. I am a big fan of space travel and exploration and follow closely much of what NASA does. When I first heard of the Cassini resistance, I immediately thought, "probably a few quacks who don't know squat about the technical aspect of the issues." Boy was I wrong. I have learned a ton these past couple of months reading your website and your correspondences with several key people. You have really swayed my opinion of the Cassini project from absolute support to a guarded pessimism. I still can't say that I absolutely wouldn't push the big red launch button if it were up to me, but I would definitely lose sleep over it. (I'm afraid my curiosity, and explorative nature are quite strong.) Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that your website has had a significant impact on my support for the project.
Has this been suggested to you or crossed your mind yet?: Rent a couple of shrimp boats in October and park them off of the coast of Florida?
Later
Matt
Contact:
Russell D. Hoffman,
Webmaster, STOP CASSINI web site
Editor, STOP CASSINI Newsletter
Carlsbad CA
Announcing:
THE SHRIMP BOAT PROTEST AGAINST CASSINI
NEWS ITEM: SHRIMP BOATS DELAY $200 MILLION NASA LAUNCH BY A DAY. HELICOPTERS DROP WRITTEN REQUESTS ON DECK OF BOAT BUT TO NO AVAIL. LAUNCH DELAYED.
Shrimp boats from heaven? Well, who knows, but goodness, what a sign! We need boats. There is a 140-minute launch window every day. Here's the URL of a NASA support document containing the official daily launch windows for the Cassini mission,which begin October 6th, 1997 at 4:38:26 am:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/fsar1997/bk1launc.gif
Shrimp boats. You heard the news. Even if we only delay it by one day, or one week we'll have more of that hard-to-get media publicity than we could possibly have imagined. Even just a week's worth of protests, by just one boat, might be all that we would need to wake people up, wouldn't it? To get worldwide press? It's time to explore the possibilities of a shrimp-boat solution. Such a protest is a very legitimate form of protest, historically speaking. It's just too obvious, too easy, too effective. Handed to us on a silver platter. Too non-violent. Too good. We should all rent/buy/beg/borrow/build boats and have an offshore party that lasts as long as we need.
If it can be done once, it can be done again. And now it HAS been done once and all the Air Force could do was drop a"please-move" request via streamer onto the deck of the boat. Let's do it again. NASA: Start printing streamers.
Thanks to Mark Elsis, Robert Cherwink, Brad Suspicious, and especially to "MATT" who was the first to mention it to me, and thanks in advance to everyone who likes this idea and spreads the word.
Please distribute this email message anywhere and everywhere...
--Russell Hoffman
Editor
STOP CASSINI newsletter
(Now in it's 34th issue...)
Webmaster
STOP CASSINI web site
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/index.htm
50 Articles, 50 NASA gif images, prior newsletters posted.
Largest and oldest STOP CASSINI web site in the world.
Let the Internet electron light shine through. Learn about Cassini and
help save the world! Learn so you can teach others about Cassini.
See you off the shores of KSC in October!
TELL OTHERS!!!!!!!!
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