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back to article Cassini survives 'in your face' Enceladus flypast

NASA's Cassini spacecraft has survived an "in your face" flyby of Saturnian moon Enceladus designed to collect data on geysers spewing water vapour and other matter from giant fractures at the body's south pole. Cassini on Wednesday skirted the geysers' plumes at a tad over 51,000km/h (32,000mph) at a height of 200km (120 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not geysers

    Electrical discharge machining.

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  2. Dave
    Alien

    That kind of proves the point

    Enceladus must have life. Why else would the probe fail at the crucial point? Remember it was built by the guys that still haven't found life on the home world of one of El Reg's most cherished posters.

    @amanfromMars: Can't you just put a sign up or something, so they know where to look?

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Great! use! of! TAX! Payers! $$$$$!

    I'm impressed that NASA spent all that money to send a space probe to the moons of Saturn, just to take a picture of a moon and then use Paint to draw nipples on two moon craters just to make them look like a pair of TITS....

    Fantastic work NASA... USA!, USA!

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  4. Chris
    Coat

    Windows for Spacecraft

    "During the flyby, the instrument was switching between two versions of software programs. The new version was designed to increase the ability to count particle hits by several hundred hits per second."

    You can imagine the scene... The operator prepares the new program, ever so carefully... waiting for the right moment, the countdown clock reaches zero... just as the operator hits enter, a prompt appears, grabbing the focus:

    "Updating you computer is almost complete. You must reboot your computer for the updates to take effect.

    Do you want to reboot now?"

    Mine's the one covered in space dust...

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  5. Daniel Silver badge

    Maybe it's just me ...

    ...but did anybody else think it might not be wise to try to switch programs at such a crucial moment?

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  6. Curtis W. Rendon
    Flame

    @Great! use! of!

    Clear why you'll never make space scientist...

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  7. Tom
    Pirate

    @ Curtis

    Or a cosmologist even?

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  8. Steven Raith
    Unhappy

    @Tom, Curtis

    I think even stacking shelves would be pushing the envelope for that chap.

    Nice to see pretty pictures from space every so often.

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  9. Richard Pennington
    Alien

    Cassini car-wash

    How much do the Enceladans charge for their car-wash?

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  10. theotherone
    Thumb Down

    V

    "An unexplained software hiccup with Cassini's Cosmic Dust Analyzer instrument prevented it from collecting any data during closest approach,"

    teaches them to install vista ultimate.....

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  11. Anthony Eeles
    Coat

    Can Cassini beat the Evil Enchiladas?

    Find out in next weeks installment... "Cassini and the Burritos of Doom"

    It's already on and I'm moving to the door....

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Aliens at work!

    That application malfunction was done by Enceladans who have reprogrammed Cassini to go straight to Uranus!

    Mine's the stinky one.

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