I read about this earlier and wondered, why not just send it off into space as a giant probe w/ added sensors etc. Why crash it when you could simply set it on a trajectory away from earth unmanned and be done w/ it. Perhaps let it do a flyby of some planets or moons or some shit.
I was thinking along those same lines.
Add a bunch of sensors / cameras to the outside and set them to broadcast data back to Earth, then send it on it's way towards Pluto.
exactly, crashing it just seems wasteful
I noticed this at the end of the article:
Mr. Bowersox didn’t rule out the possibility of a salvage mission to the crash site or missions and funded requests from partner nations and museums such as The Smithsonian to secure would-be artifacts of a bygone era of space travel, but nothing is planned.
So maybe they can get something worthwhile out of it if the deorbit goes well.
Still, sending it out as a larger version of Voyager just seems cooler.
No no no! We must spend much more money on new shit to do that!
Actually, not a bad idea. If they had that dual-use intention for its end of life mission during the design phase, it could have a useful purpose. I'm not sure what they could accomplish with its current capabilities, probably just some video and limited sensors.
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