Concerned citizens of the 12th Congressional District publicly disclosed an impassioned request to cease the launching of today’s international Cassini launch to Saturn.

A group of about 15 citizens brandished signs and spoke out against the voyage in front of the Federal Building, 250 W. Cherry St., Friday. The group proceeded to march toward Town Square.

The Cassini spacecraft has met with strong opposition because the vessel is using 72.3 pounds of plutonium-238 as a fuel source.

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In an open letter to Rep. Jerry Costello, D-Ill., the group stated that the Cassini probe will be launched on a Titan IV/Centaur rocket, which has a one in 25 chance of failure.

E.G. Huges, a Carbondale resident and member of the Peace Coalition of Southern Illinois and the Shawnee Green Party, said the environmental effects of a failed launch will result in thousands of deaths.

Our part in this protest is not the mission (to Saturn), he said. It is the means (of the power source).

The American people weren’t asked if this is what they wanted. NASA said because Saturn is so far away from the Sun, solar power would not be effective, so it said a plutonium generator was necessary.

The group’s letter to Costello stated that when the probe travels around the Earth in August 1999, en route to Saturn via Jupiter, even a slight miscalculation could send the probe back into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The letter also stated if the probe entered the Earth’s atmosphere on the return trip it would burn up on re-entry and dispense vaporized plutonium dust around the globe, causing 10 million to 20 million deaths.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement issued by NASA estimated that a worst case scenario would result in 2,300 cancer fatalities over a 50-year period.

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The impact statement was prepared to estimate casualties in case something should go wrong with the launch. In April 1997, a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement was revised to estimate the number of cancer fatalities from 2,300 to 120.

The Cassini spacecraft will spend about seven years traveling from Earth to Saturn. It will follow a complex trajectory that uses four gravity assists:two with Venus and one each with Earth and Jupiter.

These gravity assists will allow the spacecraft to build enough velocity to travel the 7.94 million miles to Saturn.

Richard Whitney, member of the National Lawyers Guild and Shawnee Green Party, said the Titan IV rocket has a 5-percent failure rate and an accident would cause an environmental catastrophe.

We’re trying to raise public awareness, he said. The Cassini mission is the most foolish of NASA’s plans.

Alan Bradshaw, a California native who attended the protest, likened the mission to his wartime experience in Guam during World War II.

I can remember when the bomb was dropped, and it seemed like nuclear energy was going to be a good thing, Bradshaw said. But it turned out that it wasn’t that way.

Huges said the protest was effective because people who drove by and saw the march became aware of the launch.

NASA didn’t let people know about this until about six months ago, he said. NASA should stand for Never A Straight Answer.