Cassini
Note:
On the 18th of August 1999 the nuclear space probe Cassini completed its so called "flyby"-maneuver around earth successfully. Thus the immediate threat stemming from Cassini has ended, yet while others may claim so this doesn't prove at all nukes in space are safe. They aren't, as numerous accidents involving space based nuclear payloads have shown. Shooting up space capsules loaded with uranium, plutonium or other highly dangerous nuclear substances and flinging them around the planets of this solar system should be banned altogether - now. On September 23, 1999, NASA admitted they had lost their "Mars Climate Orbiter", a space probe which was intended to work as a weather satellite over Mars. They misfired its engines, and 125 million dollars were gone. Misfiring Cassini's engines as close to Earth as they brought it on August 18, 1999 would have had direr consequences. This webpage, part of my small collection of texts referring to Cassini and nukes in space in general, may have lost its immediate concern yet shall remain online for the sake of documentation.
On October 15, 1997 the space probe Cassini, with 72,3 pounds of plutonium on board, was launched into space from Cape Canaveral. Cassini's destination is Saturn and its moon Titan, where the main objectives of its mission are to find out what the rings of Saturn and the atmosphere of Titan are made of. I opposed this launch, because it was irresponsible and stupid in my view, not for the mission's objectives, but for the plutonium to be carried along.Plutonium doesn't make sense on earth and even less so in space. The catastrophes with fissile material in space, e.g. the 1964 disintegration of an American satellite in earth's atmosphere with 2.1 pounds of Pu 238 on board, justify in my view the call for a total ban on the use of nukes in space.
Cassini will make headline news at least til 1999 when it shall be flung around earth in what NASA calls a "flyby maneuver". If they get it wrong at this time of the operation and Cassini does what they choose to label an "inadvertent reentry" into earth's atmosphere, its plutonium cargo will probably be released, burnt up and showered down on earth. No big deal? Well, some of the world's finest experts on radiation disagree. Just look for the links below. And what's worse: NASA is planning further starts with fissile material and even nuclear "star wars" are still an option for the American military. That's a big deal, I think. The USA can trust in this on their european partners. Germany as well as other countries eagerly look for their own exploits in an American nukes in space agenda. A perfect analogy to the nuclear industry on earth which is "well and healthy" despite Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.
The fissile material to be thrust into space has to be produced on earth. Which means that all the misery already caused on earth by the use of nuclear energy will be exported into space. Did you know that the much hyped Mars Pathfinder took plutonium to Mars? Only seven grams of the stuff, they say. No big deal? Well, some of the finest experts ... you get the picture. No man has set foot on Mars yet, but our pollution is already there, in its worst variety.
Morally seen, pro nukers have only few choices left. Either they are cynics, liars or fools. This is even more the case with nukes in space. Why? Just read on to know why.
Cassini is no longdrink and no kind of new chocolate. It's an extremely bad idea.
An e-mail debate on the use of nukes in space and on earth.
What Dr. Michio Kaku, Henry Semat-Professor at the City-Universität of New York, says on Cassini.
What a former employee of NASA wants to tell you.
The main website on stopping the flyby.
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