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Ertai’s Meddling: Repel the Dark (INN)

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It's hard being a Human these days.

The living dead walk the earth, looking to devour the flesh of the living. Our own kind scavenge the grafs for body parts for their manufactured abominations. Vampires stalk them for their very blood, while the Wälder are the hunting grounds of the werewolves.

As if all this wasn't enough, the disembodied apparitions of their own dearly departed are returning with alarming consistency.

And if they thought the had a handle on things, that a sort of detente had been established that broke things more or less even, well... it's about to get a whole lot harder when Dark Ascension hits in a short few weeks.

Before that happens, however, we'll be taking a look at the Repel the Dark Intro Pack, a Green/White Humans tribal deck, to see how we might help the Humans improve their chances. Over at Ertai's Lament, we call these projects "Meddlings," and, in keeping with that spirit, we'll be employing the same two guidelines we have whenever we deckbuild from a precon.

Rule #1: No added rares or mythics.

The point of meddling with a deck is to improve the core values and underlying themes of the deck, rather than gut it and stuff it full of expensive chase cards. If you have a couple copies of Mikaeus, the Lunarch lying about and want to stuff them into your deck, by all means do so! But this feature is aimed to include those players who might not have access to a lot of those cards.

Rule #2: No cards from other sets.

Like Rule #1, this is in place to keep the deck accessible. Towards that end, we'll only be looking at cards from sets already represented in the deck, in this case Innistrad and Magic 2012.

To get a sense of what our beleaguered Humans have to work with, let's first begin with a look at the deck's stock list.

So... what to cull and what to keep? Let's assemble the forces and see what's available.

The Creatures

Avacynian Priest: We have an interesting trade-off here to consider when deciding upon a tapping option for the deck. Tappers like this have some solid utility on both offense and defense and are worth inclusion in a creature-based combat deck. The Priest has a non-Human restriction on its targeting, but is very flexible in its mana payment for the ability. Its Core Set equivalent, Gideon's Lawkeeper, demands White mana to activate, but gives you unrestricted tapping. Given the preponderance of Human-based decks in fashion at the moment, the Lawkeeper is probably the safer play.

Avacyn's Pilgrim: A look at the mana curve for the deck shows that, while Repel the Dark peaks at the 2-drop slot, it still has a sizable number of one-drops and three-drops bracketing it with some pricier noncreature spells backing it up. Although not purely aggressive in a Goblins sort of way (not least because it's a two-colour construction), the deck still wants to hit its drops right out of the gate and apply some early pressure. [card Avacynian Priest]Avacynian Priests[/card] not only help that strategy, but as Humans themselves they bring some tribal synergy along for the ride. We'll not only be keeping the pair here, but we'll be adding more.

Benalish Veteran: The Veteran isn't terrible- a 3/3 for three mana on the attack in a deck that wants to do precisely that. The problem with him isn't that he's a 2/2 otherwise, but rather that he has a lot of competition in his drop slot- and most of it better than he is.

Elder Cathar: I don't love the Cathar- another three-mana 2/2 Human- but he serves enough of a purpose here that he's worth a look. Repel the Dark doesn't have a lot of ways to deal with large creatures, and the ability to permanently pump up one of your own once he's headed for the Blessed Sleep can make your first strikers especially lethal.

Elder of Laurels: One of the risks in playing swarm decks is that you tend to run out of things to do later in the game. For these decks, mana sinks like this guy offer tremendous efficiency. He's also one of our two rares and his spot on the bench is uncontested.

Elite Vanguard: A workhorse of preconstructed Magic, he's come quite a ways since his earliest incarnation as the rare Savannah Lions. Although his 1 toughness marks him as brittle, two power on the opener is nothing to sneer at.

Fiend Hunter: This is obviously one of the strongest cards we'll have recourse to, being an automatic two-for-one and a solid tempo play. As an uncommon, we're free to add more- and most certainly shall.

Hamlet Captain: As a 2/2 for two mana, he's right on curve as you'd expect from Green, and his battle cry-esque power pump can add considerable threat to your Human army. A keeper.

Jade Mage: Although the Saproling tokens this lass produces don't really synergise with the rest of the deck, they are not without purpose. They're an easy and reliable way to trigger extra cards off the Mentor of the Meek, and can help flood the board with tokens- just the thing to drape an Overrun atop!

Mentor of the Meek: The deck's other rare and another three-mana 2/2. Swarm decks don't often have much recourse to card advantage, so when an opportunity like this comes along to keep gas in the tank, you'd be silly to turn your nose up at it.

Selfless Cathar: A combat trick on a stick, he's situationally useful but far from sexy. Like the Benalish Veteran, he loses out in light of greater quality at his position.

Slayer of the Wicked: Any time you can get a two-for-one that leaves a body behind, it's a hard one to resist. That said, the Slayer loses some of his shine when compared to the Fiend Hunter. Outright destruction is preferable to a reversible exile much of the time (though that shifts a bit in a graveyard-based set like this one), but the Slayer is an overpriced whiff if your opponent isn't playing with "monsters." Cutting these reduces the risk of being stuck with an overcosted card in hand, and trims the overall mana curve of the deck.

Thraben Purebloods: These reskinned Siege Mastodons are a fine pick for the defensive-minded player, but we're looking to go in the opposite direction. In addition, they're a fine thematic inclusion as man's best friend, but there's a certain advantage that comes with every single creature being a Human here. Gonzo.

Unruly Mob: Like the Slayer, these are another conditional risk/reward play. Draw one early, and you can watch it grow to unstoppable proportion over the course of the game, a sort of grow-your-own closer. Their value drops precipitously, however, with each successive round they're not in play. Of course, the way to ensure that you have the best-possible chance to play one early- include a full playset- is also the best way to ensure that you get shafted drawing one late in the game. With an eye towards consistency, we're cutting them their walking papers.

Those are the creatures, all twenty-three of them. We'll come back to the beaters shortly as we start adding and subtracting with real numbers, but first let's take a look at the noncreature support.

Noncreatures

Blazing Torch: This card rates in Limited because its removal in an environment where there really isn't all that much of it to go around, but here we can be a bit more selective. The blocking restriction is cute, but will likely be a whiff most of the time.

Bonds of Faith: Removal when you need it, and a creature boost when you don't? Getting mileage out of both halves of a bi-modal card is an enticing proposition, even if auras tend to suffer from an almost inherent risk of card disadvantage. This one's a keeper.

Bramblecrush: Often in Green and White precon decks, you'll find a singleton Disenchant or Naturalize effect, an out on offer just in case something truly odious shows up on the board. Bramblecrush gives you all sorts of options, but can't reliably deliver utility. If you're facing a simple combat deck, the things this can kill aren't exactly in abundance, and that's not even saying that if/when they appear they'd even be something you'd be happy spending a card and four mana to kill. We'll cut this and take our chances, as we don't expect the precon meta to be packed with planeswalkers.

Butcher's Cleaver, Sharpened Pitchfork, Silver-Inlaid Dagger: It's hard to imagine a weenie/swarm deck these days without their equipment, and Repel the Dark is no exception. All the better that these particular artifacts work extra hard in the hands of our intrepid Humans. We'll be keeping all three, as they have a natural progression on the mana curve (costing one, two, and three mana to deploy).

Overrun: Yes, yes, oh sweet Avacyn yes! The triple-Green mana cost is a little off-putting, but by the time you get to a point where you'd want to cast it anyway (read: have enough creatures to make it worthwhile), more often than not you should be there.

Smite the Monstrous: It's always interesting to see how cards are valued within a set. This one is much worse than Reprisal, but in Innistrad it's still a cost t you'd consider paying and be happy to do so from time to time. Unfortunately, creatures that it can solve usually won't be appearing until later in the game, when what Repel the Dark is really after is clearing the lanes of the red zone early to help its beaters get through. Cut.

Spare from Evil: This is another conditional card that will try and lure you in with tempting visions of blowout alpha strikes as you skip through endless ranks of Zombies, Dragons, Beasts, Oozes, and whatever else. Against Humans, however, it's as good as a dead card, and it takes up space that can better be used elsewhere- like real removal.

Titanic Growth: What's a combat deck without its Giant Growths? The applications for this are abundant, from combat trickery to piling on that last bit of damage to a wounded opponent. On pedigree alone these Titanics are unsinkable.

Time to Build

Elder Cathar

Culling out the chaff from the above list gives us plenty of room to grow. We want to have a solid start most opening hands, so we'll fill out the one-drops with two [card Gideon's Lawkeeper]Gideon's Lawkeepers[/card], four [card Avacyn's Pilgrim]Avacyn's Pilgrims[/card], and a trio of [card Elite Vanguard]Elite Vanguards[/card]. We'll also be keeping the pair of [card Jade Mage]Jade Mages[/card] for our two-drops.

Our three-drop complement is where the real muscle of the deck lies. The pair of [card Elder Cathar]Elder Cathars[/card] are staying put, as is the Elder of Laurels.

We'll round out to a full playset of [card Fiend Hunter]Fiend Hunters[/card], as that will be one of the deck's workhorses to keep the red zone relatively free of obstruction. We'll also add another Hamlet Captain, bringing the total up to three. Cards like the Captain, which improve the ones we're already playing, are a definite plus in this sort of deck.

And of course, there's the Mentor of the Meek.

In our revamp of Deathly Dominion, we threw in a bit of unconventional tech that supported the deck's theme of sacrifice by including a Crumbling Colossus, which was a bit of damage as well as a death trigger for morbid all in one. On a similar note, we'll be adding a curveball to Repel the Dark as well: the Thraben Sentry. There often comes a point in swarm decks where you start to realise you're running out of steam on the board.

Maybe you haven't drawn your removal as much as you like, or maybe you got off to a slower than usual start. Often it's once your opponent begins dropping creatures in the 3/3 range when you realise that you're going to fall just short of being able to kill off your opponent, as they can start to profitably block you and stall the board out. The Thraben Sentry is your ace in the hole here, since you can virtually be assured that something on your half off the board is going to die and gift you with the Thraben Militia.

And hey, if they decline to block your now-redundant Avacyn's Pilgrim, or opt to let that Elite Vanguard through, then the Sentry is doing his job.

As for supporting your attackers, the biggest change here is bringing in a playset of [card Oblivion Ring]Oblivion Rings[/card]. Removal in Magic 2012 and Innistrad isn't as good as it's been in the recent past for White, but these catch-all enchantments are about as good as it gets.

We'll then add a second Overrun to double your chances of drawing it- without having so many in the deck that they risk holding you back with a virtual mulligan when they appear in your starting seven.

As for the rest of the deck, we'll keep the pairs of Bonds of Faith and Titanic Growths, as well as the equipment package. Our land suite (10 Forest, 14 Plains) will also remain unchanged. Overall, this should give you a good, aggressive early-to-midgame deck with plenty of avenues for play early, and some places to sink your mana later on.

With full playsets of Fiend Hunter and Oblivion Ring, you should be able to keep the red zone fairly clear of defensive obstacles, with a virtual auto-win in your [card Overrun]Overruns[/card].

You can find the final decklist over at Tappedout. Naturally, different folks build different decks, so if there's a different route you might have taken this deck, let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for tuning in and helping to give the Humans a fighting chance.

38 thoughts on “Ertai’s Meddling: Repel the Dark (INN)

  1. Great deck to build from. The fiend hunters seems pretty solid ( didn't try them yet ), and with equipment and Mentor of the meek, the deck can keep on the table for some time. But, are the equipment cards enough to turn your humans into big threats as in other beatdown decks?

    1. This is more of a mid-range weenie swarm/aggro deck, so for that reason it tends to be less focused on crafting one large unbeatable creature in favour of threat diversity. You have a high content of cheaper creatures, meaning you should have numerical advantage or at worst parity most of the time, but the important thing is to be aggressive. The danger in that plan is always when your opponent can stabilise, and begin to put down bigger threats/answers. Like an RDW deck, the first turn where you can't profitably attack is a pivotal one.

      The answer here is removal. With ten different forms of removal (4 Oblivion Rings, 4 Fiend Hunters, 2 Bonds of Faith), you should be able to rely on thinning out your opponent's best defenders to free the red zone up for productive attack. If you're up against Humans, those Bonds of Faith won't be quite as useful, but can still be used to pump one of your guys to outpower a defender. The equipment certainly helps there as well, as you note, and a pair of Titanic Growths can turn a trade into a kill, letting yor guy live to keep bashing in.

      1. The ace in the sleeve here comes courtesy of Green. If you start to stall out and can't finish off your opponent, look to go on the defensive just long enough to draw one of your two Overruns. Especially if you outnumber your opponent with creatures, this can often claim the game on the spot.

        TLDR: The deck's tactics tend to reward quantity over quality, or more smaller attackers over fewer larger ones. The abundant removal and combat pumps can keep the momentum on your side of the table and your opponent on the back-foot, and if things run long enough you've got Overruns to close with.

        Great comment, thanks for posting!!

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It’s a very challengingtask to plan imaging sequences during a close flyby when the geometry ischanging rapidly. And they’ve done an excellent job. We’re in for quite ashow.”Robert H. Brown leads Cassini’s visual and infrared mapping spectrometer(VIMS) team, based at UA’s Lunar and Planetary Lab in Tucson. “We know VIMSwill see through the haze to Titan’s surface,” Brown said. “At closestapproach – 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) – we’ll have 600-meter-pixelresolution. We’ll be able to see very small geologic features. We’llget very high resolution looks at atmospheric phenomena, too. But frommy perspective, the really important thing about this encounter isreally digging down below the atmosphere and getting our first realglimpse of Titan geology.”We don’t know what we’re going to encounter there. I suppose you canassume we’ll see common geologic forms like mountains and craters andtectonic faults, maybe even volcanism,” Brown said.Titan is possibly the land of a thousand hydrocarbon lakes. UA planetarysciences and physics Professor Jonathan I. Lunine theorized as agraduate student more than 20 years ago that Titan could have liquidhydrocarbon seas or lakes. Lunine is the only U.S. scientist selected bythe European Space Agency for its three-member Huygens probeinterdisciplinary science team. He and Ralph Lorenz of UA’s Lunar andPlanetary Laboratory also are members of the radar team. Cassini will getits first radar images of Titan on tomorrow’s flyby.”If either the radar or VIMS system on the orbiter take images ofliquid-filled crater basins, that to me would be very, veryexciting,” Lunine said. Scientists would then have evidence that surfacelakes are a source and sink for methane in Titan’s hydrologic cycle.VIMS will see Titan’s hydrocarbon pools, if they exist and aren’thidden by some low-lying fog or other strange phenomenon, Brown said.VIMS team member Caitlin Griffith said, “Closest approach will giveus the most exciting VIMS data because we have that clear view down to thesurface. We want to isolate different terrain types and start seeingtexture.”When the Cassini spacecraft flew within 339,000 kilometers (210,600miles) of Titan in July, VIMS was so far away that everything it saw wassmeared over 150 kilometers (93 miles), Griffith said. “That’s like takinga picture of Arizona but smearing all of Tucson with all of Phoenix andbeyond, towards Flagstaff. This time, we’ll be close enough to isolate andidentify lakes and mountains, and maybe see shadows cast at differentillumination angles.”Cassini won’t just look at Titan next Tuesday. Cassini’s Ion andNeutral Mass Spectrometer (INMS) will taste mysterious, subtle flavors inTitan’s atmosphere, team member and UA planetary sciences Professor RogerYelle said.”Our instrument will scoop up a breath of Titan’s puffy atmosphereduring the flyby,” Yelle said. The experiment will measure how manymolecules of different masses it got in the gulp of Titan’s mostlynitrogen, methane-laced atmosphere.”Scientists with telescopes have so far seen 19 different chemicalmolecules in Titan’s atmosphere — more than in any other solar systembody’s atmosphere except Earth’s,” Yelle said. Laboratory experiments showthere are probably many more kinds of chemicals in Titan’s atmosphere, headded.Yelle and other INMS scientists want to identify the big, complicated andinteresting hydrogen-and-carbon-containing molecules because theyare part of a planetary system that possibly rains methane and producesethane ponds. “Titan is a big laboratory where you get to play withatmospheres on planetary scales,” Yelle said.In addition, Yelle said, he is fascinated by Titan chemistry as ascientist interested in the origins of life.Learning more about how carbon-containing, or “organic,” moleculesform doesn’t explain how DNA came to be, Yelle said. “A single strand ofDNA contains about 3 billion nucleotides that if stretched out, would besomething like 1.7 meters long. We’re trying to understand moleculeswith just 10 or 12 atoms.”But Titan’s hydrocarbon chemistry holds clues that explain the veryfirst steps of how nature assembled organic molecules, which are theprecursors to amino acids, the building blocks of life, he said.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, theEuropean Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet PropulsionLaboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology inPasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Office of SpaceScience, Washington, D.C. The Cassni orbiter and its two onboard cameraswere designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is basedat the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. The visual and infraredmapping spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona Lunar andPlanetary Laboratory, Tucson, Ariz.Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle’s last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini sees Atlas, Pandora and Janus orbiting Saturn CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: November 17, 2004Saturn hosts its own miniature solar system, with an entourage of more than 30 moons. This image shows Saturn’s A and F rings, along with three of the moons that orbit close to them. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteDownload larger image version From innermost to outermost, tiny Atlas (32 kilometers, or 20 miles, across) orbits just outside of the bright A ring and is seen above center in this view. Prometheus (102 kilometers, or 63 miles, across) is visible near lower right. Prometheus and its smaller cohort, Pandora, shepherd the thin, knotted F ring. Finally Janus (181 kilometers, or 112 miles, across) can be seen near lower left. Janus shares its orbit with the moon Epimetheus. Density waves due to Janus cause some of the bright bands seen in the A ring in this image. Prometheus and Atlas also produce waves in the rings, but their wave regions are too narrow to be seen here. The interactions of the moons with each other and the rings are a major target of study for the Cassini mission. The planet’s shadow stretches all the way across the main rings in this view. The shadow has an oval shape at present, but over the next few years will become more rectangular as the planet orbits the Sun and the angle at which sunlight strikes the rings decreases.The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Oct. 6, 2004, at a distance of 6.4 million kilometers (4 million miles) from Saturn through a filter sensitive to wavelengths of visible red light. The image scale is 38 kilometers (24 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. Cassini posterJust in time for the Cassini spacecraft’s arrival at Saturn, this new poster celebrates the mission to explore the ringed planet and its moons. 2005 CalendarThe 2005 edition of the Universe of the Hubble Space Telescope calendar is available from our U.S. store and will soon be available worldwide. This 12×12-inch calendar features spectacular images from the orbiting observatory.Moon panoramaTaken by Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, this panoramic poster shows lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell as a brilliant Sun glare reflects off the lunar module Antares.Mars Rover mission patchA mission patch featuring NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover is now available from the Astronomy Now Store.Apollo 11 special patchSpecial collectors’ patch marking the 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing is now available.Choose your store: – | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini sees crescent Rhea CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: July 21, 2004The first artificial satellite in the Saturn system, the Cassini spacecraft, returned images of the natural moons following a successful insertion into orbit. This is an unmagnified view of the moon Rhea. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteDownload a larger image version With a diameter of 1,528 kilometers (950 miles) across, Rhea is Saturn’s second largest moon. The Voyager spacecraft found that like Dione, Rhea has one of its hemispheres covered with bright, wispy streaks which may be water frost. This view shows a heavily cratered surface, and thus it is most likely ancient. Many of the craters visible here have central peaks. Cassini soon will look for clues to help unlock the moon’s geologic history. The spacecraft is slated to fly by Rhea at a distance of only 500 kilometers (311 miles) on Nov. 26, 2005. The image was taken in visible light with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 2, 2004, from a distance of about 990,000 kilometers (615,000 miles) from Rhea and at a Sun-Rhea-spacecraft, or phase angle of about 109 degrees. The image scale is 6 kilometers (4 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle’s last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini sees objects, density waves in Saturn’s rings UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO-BOULDER NEWS RELEASEPosted: November 9, 2004A University of Colorado at Boulder-built instrument riding on the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft is being used to resolve objects in Saturn’s rings smaller than a football field, making them twice as sharp as any previous ring observations. This false color image of two density waves in Saturn’s A ring was made from the stellar occultation observed by Cassini’s ultraviolet imaging spectrograph. Bright areas indicate the denser regions of the rings. The bright bands in the left part of the image are the “peaks” of a density wave caused by gravitational stirring of the rings by Saturn’s moon, Janus. A smaller density wave in the right half of the image is produced by the moon Pandora. The ultraviolet imaging spectrograph observed the brightness of the star Xi Ceti as the rings passed in front of it, and the flickering of the starlight was converted into the ring density depicted by the image. The image represents a distance of about 724 kilometers (450 miles), and the smallest features are about one-half mile across. Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Colorado at BoulderDownload larger image version Joshua Colwell of CU-Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric andSpace Physics said the observations were made with UltravioletImaging Spectrograph, or UVIS, when Cassini was about 4.2 millionmiles, or 6.75 million kilometers, from Saturn in July. Saturnorbits the Sun roughly 1 billion miles distant from Earth.Colwell and his colleagues used a technique known as stellaroccultation to image the ring particles, pointing the instrumentthrough the rings towards the star, Xi Ceti. The fluctuations ofstarlight passing through the rings provide information on thestructure and dynamics of the particles within them, said Colwell, aUVIS science team member.He likened the Saturn system to a mammoth phonograph record,with the planet in the middle and the rings stretching outward morethan 40,000 miles, or 64,000 kilometers. The size of the ringparticles varies from dust specks to mountains, with most rangingbetween the size of marbles and boulders, he said.The Cassini observations show dramatic variations in thenumber of ring particles over very short distances, Colwell said.The particles in individual ringlets are bunched closely together,with the amount of material dropping abruptly at the ringlet edge.”What we see with the new observations is that some of thering edges are very sharp,” said Colwell. The sharp edges of smallringlets are especially evident in the C ring and in the so-calledCassini Division on either side of the bright B ring, Saturn’slargest ring.The Cassini observations with UVIS show that the distancebetween the presence and absence of orbiting material at some ringedges can be as little as 160 feet, or 50 meters, about the length ofa typical commercial jetliner, he said.The sharp edges illustrate the dynamics that constrain thering processes against their natural tendency to spread into nearby,empty space, said Colwell. “Nature abhors a vacuum, so it is likelygravity from a nearby small moon and ongoing meteoroid collisionsconfine the particles in the ring.”Colwell presented his findings at the 36th annual Division ofPlanetary Sciences Meeting held in Louisville, Ken. Nov. 8 to Nov 12.The stellar occultation process using UVIS also shows veryhigh-resolution views of several density waves visible in the rings,including a previously unstudied one, he said. Density waves areripple-like features in the rings caused by the influence of Saturn’smoons — in this case, the small moon, Janus.”Small moons near Saturn’s rings stir the ring particles withtheir gravitational pull,” Colwell said. At certain locations in therings, known as resonances, the orbit of a particular moon matches upwith the orbit of certain ring particles in a way that enhances thestirring process, he said.The density waves, which resemble a tightly wound spiral muchlike the groove in a phonograph record, slowly propagate away fromthe resonance toward the perturbing moon, he said. “This can createa wave in the ring that looks like a ripple in a pond,” said Colwell.”The shapes of these wave peaks and troughs help scientistsunderstand whether the ring particles are hard and bouncy, like agolf ball, or soft and less bouncy, like a snowball,” Colwell said.He noted that a density wave analysis by scientists involved inNASA’s Voyager 2 mission that visited Saturn in 1981 were used todetermine the mass and thickness of the planet’s rings.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA,the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The JetPropulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute ofTechnology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission forNASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.CU-Boulder Professor Larry Esposito of LASP is the principalinvestigator for the $12.5 million UVIS instrument, designed andbuilt for JPL at CU-Boulder.Cassini posterJust in time for the Cassini spacecraft’s arrival at Saturn, this new poster celebrates the mission to explore the ringed planet and its moons. 2005 CalendarThe 2005 edition of the Universe of the Hubble Space Telescope calendar is available from our U.S. store and will soon be available worldwide. This 12×12-inch calendar features spectacular images from the orbiting observatory.Moon panoramaTaken by Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, this panoramic poster shows lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell as a brilliant Sun glare reflects off the lunar module Antares.Mars Rover mission patchA mission patch featuring NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover is now available from the Astronomy Now Store.Apollo 11 special patchSpecial collectors’ patch marking the 35th anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 moon landing is now available.Choose your store: – | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini sees the moon Tethys: The Sea Goddess CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: July 23, 2004Like a half-full moon, cratered Tethys hangs before the Cassini spacecraft in this narrow angle camera view taken on July 3, 2004. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteDownload a larger image version Voyager images showed a large fracture on Tethys about 750 kilometers (470 miles) long (not seen in this view). Cassini will investigate this and other features on Tethys during two planned flybys, the first occurring on September 24, 2005. Tethys is 1,060 kilometers (659 miles) across. The image was taken in visible light from a distance of 1.7 million kilometers (1 million miles) from Tethys and at a Sun-Tethys-spacecraft, or phase angle of about 97 degrees. The image scale is 10 kilometers (6 miles) per pixel. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle’s last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini shows the dark side of Saturn’s moon Dione CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: July 19, 2004The icy, cratered surface of Saturn’s moon Dione shows more than just its sunlit side in these two processed versions of the same image. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science InstituteDownload a larger image version The view at left, with only mild enhancement, shows a romantic crescent with large craters visible. The contrast in the version at the right has been greatly enhanced to show the side of Dione lit faintly by reflected light from Saturn. A similar phenomenon can be seen from Earth, when the Moon’s dark side is visible due to “earthshine.” The crater at the top of the image appears to have a sunlit central peak in the enhanced view — a common characteristic of craters on Dione as seen in Voyager images. Slight variations in brightness on the moon’s dark side hint at the bright curved linear streaks, seen by Voyager. These streaks are thought to be deposits of water ice. The image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on July 2, 2004, from a distance of about 1.4 million kilometers (860,000 thousand miles) from Dione, at a Sun-Dione-spacecraft, or phase angle of about 119 degrees. The image scale is 8 kilometers (5 miles) per pixel. Dione’s diameter is 1,118 kilometers (695 miles) across. The images have been magnified by a factor of two to aid visibility. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras, were designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The imaging team is based at the Space Science Institute, Boulder, Colo. Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle’s last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini takes picture of departing Huygens probe CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: December 26, 2004 Credit: NASA/JPLDownload larger image version The Cassini spacecraft snapped this image of the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe about 12 hours after its release from the orbiter. The probe successfully detached from Cassini on Dec. 24, 2004, and is on course for its January 14 encounter with Titan. The Huygens probe will remain dormant until the onboard timer wakes it up just before the probe reaches Titan’s upper atmosphere on Jan. 14, 2005. Then it will begin a dramatic plunge through Titan’s murky atmosphere, tasting its chemical makeup and composition as it descends to touch down on its surface. The data gathered during this 2-1/2 hour descent will be transmitted from the probe to the Cassini orbiter.Afterward, Cassini will point its antenna to Earth and relay the data through NASA’s Deep Space Network to JPL and on to the European Space Agency’s Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, which serves as the operations center for the Huygens probe mission. From this control center, ESA engineers will be tracking the probe and scientists will be standing by to process the data from the probe’s six instruments. Credit: NASA/JPLDownload larger image version The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C. The Cassini orbiter and its two onboard cameras were designed, developed and assembled at JPL.Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle’s last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini spacecraft’s solar conjunction ends CASSINI PHOTO RELEASEPosted: July 12, 2004The Cassini spacecraft emerged from behind the Sun today after being in solar conjunction since July 5. The most recent spacecraft telemetry was acquired from the Deep Space Network’s Goldstone tracking station near Barstow, Calif., today. The spacecraft is in excellent health and operating normally.Just before Cassini began its transit behind the Sun, it snapped pictures of Saturn’s moonsMimas, Tethys, Rhea and Iapetus. These and other new pictures from Saturn can be found as raw images at .Solar conjunction occurs when the Sun is between the spacecraft and Earth. During this time, the spacecraft conducts only limited science observations. Command and downlink capability is reduced to a minimum, with an uplink command file consisting of 10 commands sent every five minutes, 10 to 20 times a day. The purpose of this test is to assess the spaceraft’s ability to receive commands from Earth when the signal path goes so close to the Sun.The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.Ares 1-X PatchThe official embroidered patch for the Ares 1-X rocket test flight, is available for purchase.Apollo CollageThis beautiful one piece set features the Apollo program emblem surrounded by the individual mission logos.Expedition 21The official embroidered patch for the International Space Station Expedition 21 crew is now available from our stores.Hubble PatchThe official embroidered patch for mission STS-125, the space shuttle’s last planned service call to the Hubble Space Telescope, is available for purchase. | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Cassini spacecraft executes crucial rocket firing BY WILLIAM HARWOOD

  10. Posted: January 5, 2011 The Orbiter Maintenance and Checkout Facility was constructed on North Vandenberg to house the space shuttle for postflight deservicing and preflight preparations before moving to the launch pad. The prototype orbiter Enterprise is pictured here in the OMCF during testing of the hangar.Credit: William G. Hartenstein photos Credit: William G. Hartenstein photos | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.Spaceflight Now +Subscribe to Spaceflight Now Plus for access to our extensive video collections!”Chandra’s Universe”NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory is providing new insights into the frontier of X-ray astronomy.Station’s new toiletSpace station commander Mike Fincke shows the new U.S. toilet installed aboard the complex. The astronauts are preparing the station for larger crews beginning in 2009.The Phoenix missionThis video provides a recap of the Mars lander Phoenix and the spacecraft’s mission to the frozen northern plains of the Red Planet to dig up samples of the soil and water ice.”Debrief: Apollo 8″This is the story of NASA’s first journey in orbit around the Moon with comments on the significance of the Apollo 8 flight by several prominent Americans.The Apollo 8 film reportThis is the Manned Space Flight Film Report for the mission of Apollo 8 that orbited around the Moon on Christmas in 1968.Air Force says plenty of good came from Delta 4 test SPACEFLIGHT NOWPosted: December 22, 2004While stressing the positives of Tuesday’s demonstration flight of the Boeing Delta 4-Heavy rocket and the mountain of data generated about the big booster’s actions, Air Force officials on Wednesday acknowledged an “anomaly” occurred during the first stage and two university-built nanosats were lost after not reaching orbit. The Boeing Delta 4-Heavy rocket launches from Cape Canaveral on its test flight. Credit: Tom Rogers/T-Minus ProductionsCarrying a 6.5-ton sensor-laden dummy satellite and the nanosat pair, the rocket blasted off at 4:50 p.m. EST (2150 GMT) from pad 37B at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on its maiden voyage financed by the U.S. military and Boeing.The Air Force purchased this test launch as a dress rehearsal for the Delta 4-Heavy rocket before costly national security missions begin flying atop the vehicle next year. The rocket offers the largest payload-carrying capacity currently available in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program that includes Lockheed Martin’s Atlas 5.”The Air Force/Boeing team will spend the next two months going through the pre-planned review of flight data in preparation for the next launch,” the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center said in a statement Wednesday.PHOTO GALLERY: PHOTO GALLERY: PHOTO GALLERY: PHOTO GALLERY: While climbing away from Earth, the two strap-on Common Booster Cores appeared to burn out and separate several seconds early. The center booster of the first stage finished firing and jettisoned a minute-and-a-half later, apparently early as well, leaving the rocket’s upper stage to begin a planned 7-minute engine burn to reach a targeted 100 by 135 nautical mile orbit where the tiny nanosats would be released for a one-to-two-day experimental mission.But the under-performance from the early shutdown of the Common Booster Cores left the upper stage to compensate, forcing its RL10 engine to fire longer and use more fuel than planned.The exact duration of the upper stage burn was not immediately announced in real-time as live telemetry from rocket being relayed to Cape Canaveral broke up during a handover from one tracking site to another.When the next station acquired the vehicle’s signal a couple of minutes later, the burn was over. The nanosats were to be deployed in low-Earth orbit, but the Air Force said Wednesday that the tiny craft were released at far too low of an altitude to survive.”The Nanosats were released at the proper time, demonstrating a new low-shock separation system, which will be used in future systems. In addition, the Nanosats were successfully integrated onto the DemoSat in a remarkably short four-month period, thus providing a successful demonstration of a responsive space mission,” the Air Force statement said.”However, the early shutdown resulted in separation at an altitude of approximately 57 miles, which was not sufficient to achieve orbit.”The upper stage then re-ignited for the second of three scheduled firings during the launch to reach the intended geosynchronous orbit. This burn was expected to produce an orbit with a high point of 19,650 nautical miles, low point of 148 nautical miles and inclination of 27.3 degrees. Although the exact numbers of the actual orbit reached were not formally released, Boeing indicated the altitude was close to the projections.The rocket then began a five-hour coast to reach the orbit’s high point where the final burn would occur to circularize the orbit at 19,623 nautical miles above the planet at an inclination of 10 degrees for deployment of the DemoSat primary test payload.But the stage’s fuel supply was greatly impacted by the extended maneuvers to overcome the first stage problem. Instead of firing for more than three minutes to achieve the proper orbit, the stage depleted its cryogenic propellants and shut down approximately a minute prematurely.The result was an orbit featuring a high point of approximately 19,600 nautical miles (36,400 km), low point of 9,600 nautical miles (19,000 km) and inclination of 13.5 degrees. DemoSat was released as programmed into the elliptical orbit with the low point about 10,000 miles short of the target altitude.”The EELV program office is leading an effort to determine the cause of this anomaly. The Delta 4 flight featured a substantial increase in telemetry over previous first-flight rocket launches. Engineers will be able to use this data to evaluate all aspects of the mission, including the early cutoff of the first stage. The Air Force has no plans to fly another Delta 4-Heavy flight demonstration.”Despite the trouble, the Air Force reported that the demo flight completed these primary flight objectives:Activation and launch from the heavy-version of the Delta 4 launch padFlying three Common Booster CoresSeparating the two strap-on Common Booster Cores from the center booster coreFlying the first 5-meter diameter payload fairing and separating it from the vehicleFlying the first 5-meter diameter cryogenic upper stageFlying the new upper stage through a long duration, 3-burn profile of its engine”We are very pleased with the overall performance of the Delta 4-Heavy Demo in meeting these test objectives,” said Col. John Insprucker, Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program director at the Space and Missile Systems Center and the mission director for this launch.”The EELV program and Boeing invested in today’s demonstration launch to ensure that the Delta 4-Heavy, the only EELV Heavy variant available, is ready to launch our nation’s most important national security payloads into space,” said Dan Collins, vice president of Boeing Expendable Launch Systems. “While the demonstration satellite did not reach its intended orbit, we now have enough information and confidence in the Delta 4-Heavy to move forward with preparations for the upcoming Defense Support Program launch in 2005.”The first operational Delta 4-Heavy, presently scheduled for August, will carry the final Defense Support Program craft that detects enemy missile launches and nuclear weapon detonations from space. The rocket must fly a trajectory similar to the test flight’s intended course to deliver DSP-23 directly into geostationary orbit over the equator. A problem like the one experienced Tuesday would leave the payload within an unusable orbit and uncertain of boosting itself the remaining altitude.A secret National Reconnaissance Office payload is slated to fly on the second operational Heavy mission next December. What type of orbit this cargo is destined for has not been disclosed.Beyond next year’s two launches, the long-range military outlook for Heavy missions is sparse.”The NRO still has another heavy satellite that will be ready to launch in about 2008,” Col. Insprucker said at the pre-launch news conference earlier this month. “After that we’ve got a little hiatus, I think, until probably the Transformational Communication Satellite architecture comes forward.”The Delta 4-Heavy can loft payloads comparable in weight to the Titan 4 rocket that has been in service since 1989. But that Lockheed Martin-built booster is being retired after two more flights next year from Florida and California. The Delta promises to provide launches far cheaper than Titan.Lockheed Martin’s heavy-lift Atlas 5 configuration is proceeding through development and would be ready to fly its inaugural flight 30 months from the time one is ordered, the company has said.Additional coverage for subscribers:VIDEO:FROM LIFTOFF TO BOOSTER SEPARATION VIDEO:THE DELTA 4-HEAVY LAUNCH (SHORT VERSION) VIDEO:ONBOARD CAMERA RECORDS LAUNCH VIDEO:ONBOARD CAMERA SEES BOOSTER SEPARATION VIDEO:ONBOARD CAMERA CAPTURES FAIRING JETTISON AUDIO:LISTEN TO THE 68-MINUTE PRE-LAUNCH NEWS CONFERENCE VIDEO:ANIMATION PROVIDES PREVIEW OF A DELTA 4-HEAVY LAUNCH VIDEO:RE-LIVE THE INAUGURAL DELTA 4 LAUNCH FROM 2002 VIDEO:ON-PAD FLIGHT READINESS ENGINE FIRING TEST VIDEO:TAKE TOUR OF LAUNCH PAD 37B Soviet SpaceFor the first time ever available in the West. Rocket & Space Corporation Energia: a complete pictorial history of the Soviet/Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full color. Available from our store.Choose your store: – – – Viking patchThis embroidered mission patch celebrates NASA’s Viking Project which reached the Red Planet in 1976.Choose your store: – – – Apollo 7 DVDFor 11 days the crew of Apollo 7 fought colds while they put the Apollo spacecraft through a workout, establishing confidence in the machine what would lead directly to the bold decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon just 2 months later. Choose your store: – – – Gemini 12Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program’s efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store: – – – Ferryflight Shuttle PatchFree shipping to U.S. addresses!”The Final Mission” – NASA emblem developed for the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft crew and their support teams to deliver the orbiters to their final destinations at museums.Gemini 12Gemini 12: The NASA Mission Reports covers the voyage of James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin that capped the Gemini program’s efforts to prove the technologies and techniques that would be needed for the Apollo Moon landings. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store: – – – Gemini 7Gemini 7: The NASA Mission Reports covers this 14-day mission by Borman and Lovell as they demonstrated some of the more essential facts of space flight. Includes CD-ROM.Choose your store: – – – Apollo patchesThe Apollo Patch Collection: Includes all 12 Apollo mission patches plus the Apollo Program Patch. Save over 20% off the Individual price.Choose your store: – – – Mars Rover mission patchA mission patch featuring NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover is available from our online.Choose your store: – – – Apollo 9 DVDOn the road to the moon, the mission of Apollo 9 stands as an important gateway in experience and procedures. This 2-DVD collection presents the crucial mission on the voyage to the moon. Choose your store: – – – | | | | 2014 Spaceflight Now Inc.America’s largest rocket set for launch Wednesday SPACEFLIGHT NOWPosted: August 25, 2013 Igniting its three main engines in a staggered sequence for the first time, a United Launch Alliance Delta 4-Heavy rocket for U.S. national security is scheduled for liftoff from California on Wednesday morning.

  11. Ibu sudah mencampurkan ikan bilis dan sebiji kentang yang ibu potong kecil-kecil. Rasanya makin enak bila kita makan bersama-sama dengan adik-adikmu yang kelaparan itu. Rebut-merebut potongan kentang dan ikan bilis menjadikan kita riuh kegembiraan. Bukankah itu tanda kita bahagia nak?

  12. En France, le Parti pirate présentera des listes dans six des huit sac lancel pas chercirconscriptions, avec pas moins de 30 candidats en Île-de-France et pour les Français à l’étranger. En plus de ça, le mouvement sera présent dans une quinzaine d’autres pays européens.

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