Reaching Into Space (2)

Imagine being assigned on a journey. Billion kilometers away. Alone.

Cassini Spacecraft (nasa.gov)

Cassini-Huygens, or widely known as Cassini was launched in October 1997. The mission was only 3 years younger than me. I remember nothing about the launch. Because obviously I was still too young. However, the end of the journey is not something I am going to forget. It was I think, a glorious way to end a mission.

 I am not an expert in planetary science, nor in spacecraft. I'm just in love with them. This is just a love letter, an appreciation from a lover faraway on earth.

Isn't it amazing to think that just a little over 90 years since the Wright brothers flew the first powered airplane, humanity manage to flew one into Saturn? A destination billions of kilometers away from earth. It took Cassini 7 years to reach the destination. To put it into perspective, in 2005 Steve Fosett made the record of first solo, nonstop unrefueled circumnavigation of the world in an airplane. It took him 67 hours. Given 7 years of time, in rough calculation he'll be able to circumnavigate the earth for more than 900 times. Any earthly distance is meaningless compared to the scale of the solar system.

Saturn's among the most stunning planets in our solar system. Named after the Roman God of agriculture, it has this unique feature no one can falsely distinguish, the ring. What appears on the other side of the telescope is a real world. We'd have nowhere to stand though, since it's a gas giant. Plunged into an ocean big enough, Saturn would float. To be able to actually send a spacecraft there and take a closer look is a big thing.

In fact, Cassini has been sending huuuuuge amount of data to earth. Those data are the window to help humans understand Saturn and it's neighborhood. The space probe Huygens that aboard the Cassini spacecraft landed on Titan, Saturn's moon and Cassini continued to orbit around Saturn. The most amazing discovery is, according to scientists, Enceladus. Enceladus is one of Saturn's moon. Enceladus was thought to be a dead frozen world. However it was known that something has been gushing out from the south pole. Later on the mission, Cassini revealed that Enceladus has an ocean of liquid salt water, complete with hydrothermal activity underneath its icy surface. The discovery was made by flying really close to Enceladus' south pole so that the instruments on Cassini could 'sniff' the plumes of material gushing out into space. Having known that there could be a liquid water ocean with sizzling hot soup of organic material from the hydrothermal activity, another question emerged. Could there be life on Enceladus? This is the reason behind Cassini's grand finale. It could've been left dead as junk and floating around the Saturnian neighborhood, but there'd be risk of contaminating Saturn's moon such as Enceladus that might be habitable for life. So there Cassini was, in path of its own destruction.

Plumes on Enceladus South Pole (nasa.gov)

In April 2017, scientists decided to  begin the grand finale After two decades of exploration, this lone traveler had used up all of its resources. With only a little bit of the fuel left, it began to execute a series of dives into the region between Saturn and the rings. The complete dives took 5 months to complete. The dives eventually ended in the destruction of the spacecraft by Saturn's atmosphere. In the last minutes of the dive, Cassini struggled to point its antennae towards the earth to send back as many data as possible. Those last minute data would give a better understanding on Saturn's atmosphere.

15th of September 2017 was the last day of the grand finale. I was supposed to be able to watch the live broadcast at home, but it turned out that I had to go on a work meeting. Fortunately, the meeting didn't last long. I stayed for a while at the cafe, I took out my laptop and started streaming. I bet my mom laughed when I said that I was going to be home very late to watch a live broadcast at a random cafe haha. I told her it was so important because a satellite was going to land on a planet.

Through the stream, I watched as the scientists nervously waiting for the radio signal from Cassini to stop transmitting. The moment the radio transmission ended was the cue that Cassini's gone. They started hugging and congratulating each other. Though it ended with a destruction, I think it was a glorious way to end a mission. Nothing's better than to finally be a part of the planet you've been studying. Cassini was burnt to ashes like a meteor. One of the scientist said that during the entire time Cassini was there, Saturn felt as close as a next door neighbor, but after it was gone it suddenly became as far as the planet is.

Cassini's grand finale marked the end of an era of space exploration. I was fascinated by the spirit of the people behind the mission, and I am thankful for every people who brought Saturn to me, including Mrs Han my elementary school teacher.

We may not be able to get anywhere further than our home planet, in flesh and blood in the near future. Time and distance, the currencies humans can't negotiate. Not to mention the fragility of life, and how demanding it is. The outer space is hostile. But no matter how unreachable it is, it'll always be there. the universe will always do its business. Whether we are aware of it or not, a speck of dust will always do its dusty business, doesn't matter if it's here in our room, or out there at an unknown nebula. At this very moment, winds are blowing at Mars, a sheet of ice cracked on the surface of Pluto, sunlight being reflected on Titan's hydrocarbon lakes, diamonds being formed on Jupiter's cloud, and so on and so on. They're busy doing their business, going on their own path, guided by Allah.

We might never get there, but I don't mind. Dear universe, please continue doing your thing, going on your journey, I'll stay here, admiring.





https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini%E2%80%93Huygens
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/
https://www.space.com/38131-cassini-death-dive-protect-titan-enceladus.html
https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/enceladus/