3I/ATLAS

[dragoner]

That too many of us are too science illiterate to have any freakin' patience.

Sad part is that if it were "visitors" we're well into the Hainish cycle that conquering us to save us from ourselves would be the most ethical choice.

In The Dispossessed, the ecological disaster of Earth is described; it has become "a planet spoiled by the human species" through wars and runaway industrial development. Pollution has turned it into a desert and ruined the carrying capacity of the land. The population has fallen from nine billion to half a billion, who only survive by rationing, labor conscription, euthanasia, forced birth control, and the charity of the Hainish.

Ultimately a fantasy.

 

[Umbran]

Sad part is that if it were "visitors" we're well into the Hainish cycle that conquering us to save us from ourselves would be the most ethical choice.

S'okay. Those books wouldn't have been beamed out into space - "visitors" will not have read them.

 

[dragoner]

It is not the point, it doesn't matter anyways. I am sure this visitor will be an interesting TNO or other celestial object.

 

[briggart]

Hey. It isn't like they get to pick and choose. We don't get to plan this - the thing showed, up, and we have to use what hardware is available.



Yep. In most pictures we can take, from anywhere, the nucleus is less than one pixel.

That is exactly why we need to take as many pictures as possible, from as many vantage points as possible. When you don't have one really good picture, you squeeze what you can out of may crappy pictures.

There is still an opportunity cost: using a satellite for a science which is not optimized for, means you don't use it for the science it was actually optimized for, so the question is whether the chance at some crappy image is worth the certain loss of a bunch of good images.

Anyway, as @Hriston pointed out, ESA and the Mars Express team feel that this is a good use of the mission time, even though with some caveats attached, so I'm happy to let this rest.