R
rlb2
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There was a way to save the “A” data from the Huygens probe if what I suggested back before Cassini’s flyby of Jupiter. I made a plea to NASA and whom ever would listen e-mailing many people about the need to use Galileo to back up Cassini on its quest to explore Saturn. Most importantly back up the data gathering capability of Cassini to the point if the Huygens probe operated longer than the allotted time on Titan Huygens could still transmit data back to Galileo. This could be done while Galileo was approaching Saturn. I even wrote some news organizations. <br /><br />No one seemed to care. This to me was a lost opportunity. If there were a way to break Galileo away from the Jovian system then this could have been the trump card (redundant) to help retrieve that missed data, Cassini transmission link for data gathered from “A” link was turned off therefore it didn’t retrieve the data, ESA is taking the blame for that - they were suppose to turn it on.<br /><br />They still was fuel left on Galileo before Cassini’s approach to help do this with gravity assist from the larger Jovian moons and a gravity assist from Jupiter. This was requested more than two years before Cassini approached Saturn. There was a communication link set up between Cassini and Galileo all they needed in place was a link between Galileo and the Huygens probe. I also suggested that they crash the Galileo probe into Titan and have Cassini retrieve the data from that. This was before the idea of the Lunar Prospector crashing into the moon. I talked to the guy who was responsible for that encounter from Texas. He was one of the few who answered my e-mail. <br /><br />Its important to note after I tried the Galileo escaping the Jovian system I also proposed that they crash Galileo into Europa as the Cassini passed by as a back up. There answer to that was they didn’t want to chance contaminating a virgin world with earthly life forms.<br /><br />I honestly didn’t know if Galileo could brake free of the <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> Ron Bennett </div>