Podcasts · Universe Today Podcast
[Interview+] Swarming The Rings of Saturn With Tiny Probes, NIAC 2026
· 35 min
Episode [Interview+] Swarming The Rings of Saturn With Tiny Probes, NIAC 2026
BONUS PART STARTS AT 21:56
Watch here (with no ads) or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/VqBVL2vwh04
🟣 Guest: Dr. Mike Rubenstein
📜 Actively Steerable Femtosat Constellations for In-situ Exploration of Saturn’s Rings, Atmosphere, and Magnetosphere https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/actively-steerable-femtosat-constellations-for-in-situ-exploration-of-saturns-rings-atmosphere-and-magnetosphere/
👉 All 2026 NIAC Selections https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/stmd/niac/niac-studies/niac-2026-selections/
Saturn's rings are dense. Sending one flagship probe through them makes no sense. It'll most probably be lost. But sending a swarm of small cheap probes does. Even if a lot of them won't survive, you're still getting lots of data. This is exactly what this NIAC project is proposing.
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00:00 Intro
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01:22 Observing Saturn's rings
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05:21 A swarm of satellites
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21:56 Invisible drones
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29:33 Current obsessions
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31:12 Final thoughts
Links in the notes 3
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