"Cassini Is About to Taste the Huge Geysers of Enceladus" Topic

"On Wednesday morning, NASA's Cassini space probe will whiz by Enceladus, making its second-to-last passage of the icy moon—and its most valuable yet. The spacecraft has already flown by Enceladus 20 times, not to mention making observations of Saturn and its other satellites over the last 11 years. But tomorrow's flyby will take Cassini within 30 miles of the surface, and straight through its mysterious geysers, which are fueled by a subsurface ocean that could potentially harbor life.

Speeding along at 19,000 mph, the probe will hurtle through the geyser's plumes around 1 pm Eastern time, furiously capturing samples and images in an attempt to characterize the moon's internal ocean. Those measurements will tell NASA's scientists more about the hydrothermal reactions and organic molecules under the moon's icy surface. "It'll be over in an instant," says Earl Maize, Cassini project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Uhhhh…am I the only one that's confusing the title with an adult movie I may have seen…years ago?

you are not alone, Andrew.

This is how it starts.

Earth "…was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's…" but that had no way to reach it. Along comes Cassini, making multiple passes of their home, giving them their opportunity.

Calculating that the satellite's orbit would soon bring it into close proximity to their world they soon manufacture millions of nanites that will be injected into one of the geysers that repeated erupt on the surface. As Cassini passes through the ejecta it is coated by the nanites that quickly work their way into the interior of the craft.

Guided by their own programming and radio signals from Enceladus itself they soon modify and reprogram the satellite. Abruptly Earth loses contact with their probe, but not before noticing a change in it's orbit. With just enough flight path data they determine the satellite will swing close to Saturn and use the planet's gravity to radically change its orbit and speed and sent it on a path back to Earth.

We will leave it to the student to complete this exercise.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand