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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spiney" data-source="post: 254885" data-attributes="member: 192438">The point being, the "flash" should be amenable to spectroscopic analysis (the whole point of doing it!).The most significant feature of the mission was the ion engine, very much an unknown (risk), but seems to have performed reliably. The future use of ion engines should make robotic interplanetary probes a bit cheaper, and last much longer (from a limited fuel supply).Ion engines have been proposed since the 1950s, and can't be used to get up into orbit, but once you are there, then they have some advantages!<a href="http://www.physorg.com/news9786.html" target="_blank">http://www.physorg.com/news9786.html</a> .</blockquote>