# Cassini "crashes" into Saturn

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassini-crashes-into-saturn/796523>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 17, 2017, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassini-crashes-into-saturn/796523 "2017-09-17T05:41:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cassini-crashes-into-saturn/796523/21 "2017-09-18T15:16:14Z")

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> [@ftg](#):
>
> Note: I presumed that they took extra care with Huygens. My comment was directed at the _Nova_ episode omitting this while going on about the dangers of contamination with Cassini. That was what was odd.

Except that they _didn’t_ take extra care with Huygens. Read the quoted excerpts from my post again. The Huygens probe was NOT sterilized.

That’s why there was “[n]o mention of extra sterilization procedures done on Huygens” in the _Nova_ episode – because there apparently weren’t any. (Of course, they could have discussed why this decision was made instead of glossing over the issue.)

Since they also state that the entire Cassini-Huygens mission was determined to be “Category II” mission, I take that to mean that the Cassini orbiter was not sterilized either.

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