A Moon of Saturn Has a Sea, Scientists Say • Hacker News Board

Re: A Moon of Saturn Has a Sea, Scientists Say

#51

Post by BrandonMarc » Fri, Apr 04, 2014, 1:28 PM UTC

didgeoridoo wrote: post #31

rkuykendall-com wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about crashing it into the moon? Higher cost, but much less chance of earth contamination. We could then check it out with cheap robots.

An object coming in from a rendezvous with Saturn would be traveling at a ludicrous speed. You would probably vaporize on lunar impact. The Earth's atmosphere can help slow it down to a reasonable velocity--otherwise you have to carry a lot more fuel to burn in a slow-down maneuver.

Ludicrous speed?! I bet they have hyperjets on that thing!

(ducks)

Re: A Moon of Saturn Has a Sea, Scientists Say

#52

Post by Steuard » Fri, Apr 04, 2014, 1:53 PM UTC

civilian wrote: post #18

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt in orbit rendezvous with ISS would be safer and cheaper. It might be safer from planetary contamination standpoint, but complexity of such maneuver would handily offset that. On top of that there is a host of other issues due to the cramped space on ISS. For example: not enough space for proper isolation of sample, not enough equipment to properly study sample, and the fact that limited manpower would be avai…

Eh, I've played KSP, an orbital rendezvous in LEO on your return isn't that hard. If you have enough precision and fuel leftover to start a safe decent, you have enough precision and fuel to dock with the ISS. I'm surprised that we aren't equally worried about contaminating Enceladus with terran microbes.

We're very worried about contaminating other worlds. But in this case, the plan (as I understand it) is to collect samples from the plumes of water that Enceladus shoots out into space, without ever landing on the surface.

Re: A Moon of Saturn Has a Sea, Scientists Say

#53

Post by fit2rule » Fri, Apr 04, 2014, 2:09 PM UTC

maaku wrote: post #4

jmpe wrote: post #2

"Dr. Tsou devised a way to capture comet particles and bring them back to Earth for NASA’s Stardust mission and has been suggesting a similar method for a spacecraft that would fly through Enceladus’ plumes and then return to Earth for scientists to examine. The challenges are to make sure that the interesting particles would not break apart, to take precautions that any alien life would not infect Earth, and to fit…

> Why bring it back to earth? Wouldn't it be safer & less expensive to return it to ISS instead, (or is that what's implied) ? No, that would involve a very complicated and expensive breaking maneuver to slow down the spacecraft, not to mention getting in exactly the right orbit to rendezvous with the ISS. It's much, much easier to just the payload sturdy enough to survive atmospheric entry and a crash landing.

Send two missions, one with the capture device, the other with a functioning remote-controlled robot laboratory. Leave them close to the region, set them up to explore for 50 years or so.

I know, I know, budgets. It'll 'never' happen.

But what if we just send a nano-factory with its own assembly/disassembly abilities? Feasible, 5 - 10 years on from now?

Well anyway, the point is: why bring it back, really? Just send more machines to do better jobs in space.

Re: A Moon of Saturn Has a Sea, Scientists Say

#54

Post by tclancy » Fri, Apr 04, 2014, 3:07 PM UTC

fit2rule wrote: post #46

anigbrowl wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Transpermia seems like a theory rather than a fact. While I think you're probably correct, it's better to be ultra-conservative on questions like this.

The point of this story is to demonstrate facts that make transpermia less of a theory and more of a reality. We're not there yet - so don't throw the baby out with the bathwater here. We're absolutely going to go there to find life.

And make sure to check the bathwater closely before you toss that.

Re: A Moon of Saturn Has a Sea, Scientists Say

#55

Post by gus_massa » Sat, Apr 05, 2014, 12:35 PM UTC

api_or_ipa wrote: post #14

why did you not just say Enceladus? Surely HN doesn't need reductionist titles.

It’s against the current guidelines that say that you should use the exact title, but I don’t like this part of the guidelines. (But there are some horror stories of heavy editorialized titles.)

On the other hand I didn’t know Enceladus until today. (I fist thought the story was about Titan.)

My preferred title for the HN submission would be “Enceladus, A Moon of Saturn, Has a Sea” or “A Moon of Saturn [Enceladus] Has a Sea”.