I think the timeline and discoveries made by the Cassini mission need to be understood in context to understand why the Cassini mission is being ended in this way. This document [1], I think, gives the details.
The main points from the article:
- Cassini was launched at a time when it wasn't known that Saturn could harbour life. From the article: The Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturn system has revealed that there is potential for life where previously not thought possible.
- once Cassini revealed this possibility of life, it was too late to make sure it didn't contaminate the environment. Hence the decision to plunge into Saturn. From the article: Lebreton also explained that Cassini does not comply with the planetary protection principles. Accordingly, care will be taken to ensure that Cassini does not crash into a body which has a significant chance for hosting life, such as Enceladus.
If you haven't already watched the video embedded in the article, I highly recommend doing so. It's beautiful work by Erik Wernquist, who also produced Wanderers, New Horizons, and the first official music video for Jamie xx's Gosh.
Is the idea really that the moons of Saturn might be contaminated by microbial life that has survived attached to Cassini for 20 years? But we're not worrying about the Mars landers? I don't get it.
Saturn's moons are much more likely to spread any contamination due to the presence of liquids. Liquid water on Enceldus and hydrocarbon lakes on Titan.
I assume you're just guessing, right? We already landed something on Titan! And small patches of liquid brine exists on Mars; obviously unlikely, but so is Cassini drilling through 5 miles of ice to reach to liquid water water inside Enceladus.
Readit News
The main points from the article:
- Cassini was launched at a time when it wasn't known that Saturn could harbour life. From the article: The Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturn system has revealed that there is potential for life where previously not thought possible.
- once Cassini revealed this possibility of life, it was too late to make sure it didn't contaminate the environment. Hence the decision to plunge into Saturn. From the article: Lebreton also explained that Cassini does not comply with the planetary protection principles. Accordingly, care will be taken to ensure that Cassini does not crash into a body which has a significant chance for hosting life, such as Enceladus.
[1] http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-exploration/extrate...
https://vimeo.com/108650530
https://vimeo.com/132183032
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjNssEVlB6M
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