Cassini program manager at JPL, Earl Maize, left, and spacecraft operations team manager for the Cassini mission at Saturn, Julie Webster embrace after the Cassini spacecraft plunged into Saturn, Friday, Sept. 15, 2017, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Since its arrival in 2004, the Cassini-Huygens mission has been a discovery machine, revolutionizing our knowledge of the Saturn system and captivating us with data and images never before obtained with such detail and clarity.
On Sept. 15, 2017, operators deliberately plunged the spacecraft into Saturn, as Cassini gathered science until the end. The “plunge” ensures Saturn’s moons will remain pristine for future exploration. During Cassini’s final days, mission team members from all around the world gathered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, to celebrate the achievements of this historic mission.
Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)
NASA: Cassini End of Mission
Maybe it appears excessively emotional to show so much for a pile of iron flying about millions of miles away but many of the members of the team for Cassini mission control have been working together on the project for the last thirty years or so. For many, Cassini wasn't just one of their accomplishments during their working careers since it may have been at or near near the entirety of their career paths and it's extremely rare to see that for any field of science, engineering, etc.
The Rockhouse isn't at all surprised to see the emotionalism and, if anything, it's surprising there isn't more of it.
My own path with Saturn in learning it's more than just another light in the sky is exceeded in time only by the Sun and Moon. Those ones we find early are heavenly bodies since they figure prominently in the metaphysical lives of most or maybe everyone on the planet. It's unknown how many or how soon make others make the next leap toward Saturn but for me that passion came as a result of my ol' Dad's great love of space and the people and programs which went out to explore it.
My memory of who other than my ol' Dad was involved in the Event with Saturn but I'm relatively sure it was my Uncle Ted who brought the telescope although it may have been Uncle Otto. It seems a high probability Doc was there was well since we're only a year apart in age and setting up the telescope was a backyard, family event.
Zen Yogi: were those uncles real?
Nope since they weren't related by blood but, by Australian rules, sometimes or often the uncles adopted by a family have tremendous importance. In this case, the memory goes back a true sixty and it's possibly somewhat less (i.e. 3-4 years) but it couldn't have been much.
That vision of Saturn's rings from so long ago has a positively haunting inspiration ever since. While that didn't result in my own voyage into space, nothing ever reduced the desire for it. The vision is all the more a beautiful thing now as the Cassini program shuts down since it's probably quite likely that many households bought telescopes for the specific purpose of seeing Saturn and her rings. Even for some kid today, that astounding vision can still come just as it did for me way back in that Event with Saturn which was minor in the overall view of space for the planet but it was tremendous in mine.
Zen Yogi: do you feel this is a suitable tribute to Cassini's departure now?
This brings much more of the spirit I had hoped for my own goodbye to that exceptional explorer so it feels like it's accomplished for me now.
Zen Yogi: was this something you see as an example of the way he taught you about things which weren't in school?
Not as much as it may seem although I imagine the thinking was to bring the boys into it since we were getting about old enough to appreciate it.
Zen Yogi: you think he did it because he wanted to see it?
Of course, mate, since it wasn't likely he had so many opportunities for that vision in his life either. This happened in the mid- to late-50s so extremely few had ever seen such a vision. In his view, anything cool needed to be shared and so it happened and so I still remember it. So it may still come for kids today in the same way since the telescopes for hobbyists are vastly more sophisticated today than they were back in that time.
Goodbye, Casssini, since you were one of the most special explorers Man has ever known and the mission control team showed us a magnificent example of the passion and dedication of people to the cause of exploration. That passion gave us an extraordinary number of things which have filled the intermediate time since the Event with Saturn first happened.
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