Message #34083

[HereForNow]

Which now brings us to why the size of this space station bound for Mars and/or beyond is important.
It literally has to be huge for several reasons. Now before we get into this, I just want to show you all something that I got a kick out of.

On July 3, 2004, soon after orbital insertion around Saturn, the unmanned spacecraft Cassini sent this disturbing image back to Earth.

Photo courtesy
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
A new Death Star?
 
While many believed this to be proof of the existence of a new Death Star in our very own solar system, it turns out that's no space station. This is a picture of Mimas. Mimas is one of the 31 moons of Saturn. It's 247 miles across (398 kilometers) and sports a huge crater named Herschel that is 80 miles wide (130 kilometers). This picture was taken by the Cassini spacecraft from about a million miles (1.7 million kilometers) away!
Ready?















Yes!

Looks almost exactly like the Death Star huh?
Photo courtesy
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute