So long, Saturn

Cassini's Final Image: NASA/JPL

LAST SHOT: I awoke at about 4:20 this morning, and there was no going back to sleep. I knew that at that moment, NASA's Cassini probe was in the last 30 minutes of its service life, headed on a course to vaporize in Saturn's atmosphere, becoming one with the planet it had given Earthlings such amazing vantage points of our lovely, ringed neighbor since 2004. 

NASA TV coverage showed antennae around the world trying to make contact with Cassini until the end. Loss of contact with the Cassini spacecraft occurred at 4:55 a.m. PDT, with the signal received by NASA's Deep Space Network antenna complex in Canberra, Australia.

Listening to Mission Control, we heard the moment when Cassini's thrusters started fighting back (valiantly but ineffectively) against the pull of Saturn's gravity. 

It was poignant watching the scientists celebrate the end of such a successful mission.

     Photo Credit: (NASA/Joel Kowsky)

In the photo above, 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, at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Since its arrival in 2004, the Cassini-Huygens mission has performed nearly flawlessly, vastly expanding our knowledge of Saturn and its moons, and captivating the world with amazing data and images. 

Watching the post-finale coverage, we heard one big takeaway from the Cassini mission. JPL Director Mike Watkins said the "discoveries are so compelling (from Cassini), we'll go back." That's the hallmark of a successful probe, isn't it? "We'll go back and look at those ocean worlds in great detail," he predicted.

In a press release, Watkins was quoted as saying, "It's a bittersweet, but fond, farewell to a mission that leaves behind an incredible wealth of discoveries that have changed our view of Saturn and our solar system, and will continue to shape future missions and research." 

More from a post-mission press release: 

As planned, data from eight of Cassini's science instruments was beamed back to Earth. Mission scientists will examine the spacecraft's final observations in the coming weeks for new insights about Saturn, including hints about the planet's formation and evolution, and processes occurring in its atmosphere.

"Things never will be quite the same for those of us on the Cassini team now that the spacecraft is no longer flying," said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL. "But, we take comfort knowing that every time we look up at Saturn in the night sky, part of Cassini will be there, too."

Cassini launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and arrived at Saturn in 2004. NASA extended its mission twice - first for two years, and then for seven more. The second mission extension provided dozens of flybys of the planet's icy moons, using the spacecraft's remaining rocket propellant along the way. Cassini finished its tour of the Saturn system with its Grand Finale, capped by Friday's intentional plunge into the planet to ensure Saturn's moons - particularly Enceladus, with its subsurface ocean and signs of hydrothermal activity - remain pristine for future exploration.

While the Cassini spacecraft is gone, its enormous collection of data about Saturn - the giant planet, its magnetosphere, rings and moons - will continue to yield new discoveries for decades to come.

"Cassini may be gone, but its scientific bounty will keep us occupied for many years," Spilker said. "We've only scratched the surface of what we can learn from the mountain of data it has sent back over its lifetime."

An online toolkit with information and resources for Cassini's Grand Finale is available at: https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/grandfinale

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, manages the mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

If you would like to learn more, check out the Cassini Post-Event News Conference

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/107948580

Participants include:

-- Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington
-- Michael Watkins, director, JPL
-- Earl Maize, Cassini project manager, JPL
-- Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist, JPL
-- Julie Webster, spacecraft operations chief, JPL

And, if you want to watch Cassini's end, check out the End-Of-Mission Live Commentary broadcast. About the 50 minute mark when get to mission control for Cassini's final moments http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/107946496

Beginnings and Endings

REMEMBERING INDIANAPOLIS: Last night, we watched a live program about how Paul G. Allen and the crew of Petrel found the long lost U.S.S. Indianapolis, which was sunk by a Japanese torpedo during World War II.

Since July of 1945, it has rested three miles below the surface of the Philippine Sea. 

The program did not disclose its exact location, as they do not want people treasure or thrill seeking from the wreckage. The program also didn't include any photos of the ship's interior. It was all exterior footage.

It was remarkable how much of the ship was intact and very recognizable when compared to vintage photos of the Indianapolis.

You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/CTki2sOnqJo


SO LONG, FAREWELL: Yesterday and today, we've been watching NASA TV programming about the end of the remarkable Cassini-Huygens mission. Launched on Oct. 15, 1997, Cassini will take its death plunge into Saturn's atmosphere in the wee small hours this Friday morning. 

Press conferences and programs have featured scientists who have been working on the Saturn space probe Cassini since the 1980s. 

    Graphic: NASA
The amazing mission will be yielding astounding findings to its very last second, Cassini is a triumph of imagination, ingenuity and good old fashioned math. 

Below, the kids tell a bit more about what they've learned from Cassini and its scientists. Annabelle is up first. ... 

The Cassini-Huygens mission was important because it is a large help to humans to know about and study other planets in our solar system. The Earth is going to be uninhabitable someday, and when that moment comes we will have to relocate somewhere else with the conditions for life. Saturn’s moon Enceladus seems like an amazing candidate, with an ocean of liquid water underneath the entire outer crust that would be plenty to sustain humanity for a long time. The water is salty, but could easily be filtered. Scientists believe there may already be bacteria living underneath Enceladus’ crust.

The Cassini mission is also important because we’ve already learned much more about Saturn itself, and we will soon know about its atmospheres once the Cassini probe finally makes its final dive into the planet. There may be rare or interesting materials on Saturn that we don’t yet know about. We’ve also learned more about Saturn’s rings, such as the small cluster of particles known as “Peggy”. We don’t quite know what Peggy is made of, but we’ve been watching to see if it detaches from the ring’s edge. Saturn still has a lot of mysteries in store, and we’ve just scratched the surface with Cassini.

And here's CJ's take. ...  

NASA's almost-over Cassini mission is (soon to be was) very important because it marked the first-ever man-made object to enter Saturn's orbit, thus providing insight into a previously-little explored part of the solar system, Previously, the Voyager mission involved taking pictures of Saturn (most notably this one), though said pictures were not nearly in great in detail as Cassini's pictures. Being in orbit of Saturn also allowed Cassini to analyse Saturn for a much longer time, contrast with Voyager, which only passed by Saturn.

Cassini is also important because it could be a gateway to further analyzation and exploration of Saturn. Cassini's analysis of Saturn could show humans better ways to survive in Saturn's orbit (as in, on its moons), show the intricacies of Saturn's atmosphere and moons. Without Cassini, Human analyzation and exploration of Saturn would be much more dangerous.

I also had the kids come up with a couple of haiku about the mission. CJ's is first, Annabelle's is after. 

The probe's at Saturn

It analyzed the planet

Now the craft's falling

Cassini-Huygens

Trying to help uncover

Saturn’s mysteries

Cassini has returned thousands of photos from Saturn. Here's one of my favorites, as it features the planet's cool hexagon at its top.

A few things I learned from the programs: 

• There are no 'selfies' of Cassini in flight, as it had no camera capable of making that happen. 
• Cassini flew between Saturn and its rings 22 times, the first in April of 2017.
• Cassini is expected to have loss of signal at 4:55 a.m. Pacific Time, Friday morning, as it vaporizes in Saturn's atmosphere.
• Thursday (9/14), NASA is expecting the last batch of RAW images from Cassini to be posted online (we'll be looking for them!)
• Cassini will be sampling deep into Saturn's atmosphere until the very end
• During the final hours, data transmission will be changed over to a 'bent pipe transmission' stream, with no delay from collection beginning to send the data.

Here's a link to one of the programs we watched, the Saturn Mission End briefing: https://youtu.be/gs-dscW95PE

X+Y: We've been making our way through Algebra I thanks to Khan Academy. In the last week or so we've had an overview and history of algebra, an introduction to variables, and we learned about substitution and evaluating expressions. We also worked on evaluating expressions word problems, writing algebraic expressions introduction, and learned what dependent and independent variables are. There were lectures and problems involving combining like terms, an introduction to equivalent algebraic expressions, info about interpreting linear expressions and we contemplated division by zero. 

The kids both took and passed the unit test with flying colors.

KONICHIWA: We are also plugging away through Mango Languages' Japanese program. This week we've been working on greetings, gratitude and goodbyes.

We've already learned lots, including the fact that in Japanese, there is no blanket greeting for "hello," like we have in English.

Instead, they have three greetings that are used, depending on the time of day. In morning it's 

おはようございます, or Ohayōgozaimasu. Good afternoon is konnichiwa, while good evening is こんばんは, or Konbanwa. Important stuff to know!

Tuesday Round Up

SHAR-PEI A DAY:  In case you've somehow missed it, CJ is obsessed with Shar-Pei (the really wrinkly dog), and Annabelle is obsessed with making art.

Those two facts have intersected in a new project: Shar-Pei a Day, in which Annabelle will draw and share online a Shar-Pei each day. She's primarily doing it from this Facebook account: https://www.facebook.com/SharPeiADay/, but she hopes to expand it to Twitter, Instagram, and her own art site soon.

Her first post was a mug shot, literally.

That first day she also had to make a cover banner for the Facebook page. She settled on Shar-Pei doing ballet, or Bal-Pei (atop this blog post).

One theme that has emerged from the Pei drawings is the fact the dog is pretty aloof. From what we've read of the breed, they're really not the type to fawn all over people and beg for attention. Quite the opposite, in fact. The Pei are not easily impressed, one might say.

On Sunday, the Pei was pictured after an arduous day of watching football.

Earlier in the week, inspired by this viral photo of the world's most pissed of cat fleeing flood waters of Hurricane Harvey ... 

Annabelle drew a Shar-Pei distinctly displeased with hurricanes.

Yesterday, she quickly drizzle doodled a Shar-Pei using a ketchup bottle while dining at Wing Dome.

Today, she decided to draw a patriotic Shar-Pei, or a Shar-Pei-triot, if you will.

He's wrapped in the Chinese flag, because that's the country of origin for Shar-Pei.

My favorite so far was a send up of The Little Mermaid. Annabelle's version was The Little Mer-Pei.

We'll see how long Annabelle can keep the comics coming. 

UNDER THE SEA: Today, Vulcan, LTD. (one of Paul Allen's companies) replied to a post of mine on Paul Allen's Facebook account. A couple weeks back, the astounding news broke that Allen and his team had found the wreckage of the USS Indianapolis. Her sinking resulted in the greatest single loss of life at sea, from a single ship, in the history of the U.S. Navy. On her way back from a super secret mission to deliver materials used to build an atomic bomb, the Indianapolis was torpedoed.  Of the 1,196 crewmen aboard, only 317 survived. Many of those who perished died due to dehydration, exposure or shark attacks. Horrible. 

Tomorrow evening, there will be a broadcast with live footage from the wreckage on the bottom of the Philippine Sea, some three miles deep. It has been very touching reading some of the victims' families' comments today, about how much finding the vessel means to them.

Vulcan's reply to me today was about where and when we could watch the program. Here's the answer: https://www.paulallen.com/watch-live-tour-uss-indianapolis-wreck/

As the site says, "On Wednesday, September 13 at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT a live tour of the wreck of the USS Indianapolis will be broadcast here on PaulAllen.com and on PBS.org, the PBS Facebook page and PBS member stations. Produced by Vulcan Productions and Miles O’Brien Productions, LLC for PBS and with production services provided by Peacock Productions, USS INDIANAPOLIS LIVE – FROM THE DEEP will allow viewers to see parts of the wreckage of the Fifth Fleet’s naval flagship where it rests more than three miles below the surface of the Philippine Sea.
Read more at https://www.paulallen.com/watch-live-tour-uss-indianapolis-wreck/#UI9B5upTyGcD1HwG.99

ON THE HOMEFRONT: Today, I spent 2-3 hours scrubbing the old stone floor that is in our 'new' dining room. Wash and rinse, wash and rinse, wash and rinse. After nine passes (no exaggeration), the rinse water was still coming up dark. Shudder.

Here I thought the stone floor was brown and green. Turns out it's gray and white. :o

I'll bet it hasn't been sealed since 1962, when it was installed. And it might not have been sealed then, either. 

Can't wait to get it totally clean and then gloss it up a bit. It's going to be beautiful!

Science + Science Fiction

INVESTIGATING: Super busy times here at MPA. We're playing catch up and we'll start with a recap of last Thursday night's awesome activities. 

Annabelle will tell you all about it, below. ... 

Lashes & Lab Coats is a program at the Museum of Flight focused on introducing middle school and high school girls to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) through small classes. The class I most recently went to, “Hidden Treasures” was about the museum’s collections and how they identify new donations. The first thing we did after introductions was look at some old photos of women pilots and attempt to identify things about the pictures. The curators at the museum frequently have to do this with no background information, because the pictures are almost always donations. The picture I was given was of a 4-woman medic flight team in front of a Boeing jet. I could determine it was sometime after World War 1 because of the flight suits and goggles they were wearing.

After the photo exercise, we headed down to the museum’s basement where they store pieces that aren’t on display. We were shown the special box and packing methods they use, along with some very interesting vintage objects such as old mugs and G.I. Joe action figures.

We were told that the Museum of Flight, like many other museums, only displays around 10% of their collection at a time. Everything in the storage area is packed using gloves and non-acidic materials such as paper and foam. We then returned to the classroom and were given gloves to check out some of the collection items on our own! We were given objects that were too damaged to put on display, such as an old airplane steering wheel with a rudder gauge and instructions printed on the side. It was red, black, and slightly bent out of shape. The workshop was fun and I highly recommend it to any girl interested in STEM!

KHAAAAAAN: Sunday evening we went to the movies. We don't often go to the movie theater here at MPA, so it was kind of a big deal.

What propelled us to go? Ironically, the 35th anniversary of Star Trek's "The Wrath of Khan" movie.

Have I mentioned we're geeks?

So, anyway, we headed to our local theater yesterday evening and were treated to a pre-movie video of William Shatner (a/k/a Captain Kirk). We heard some behind the scenes stories about Star Trek (the original series) and the Khan movie (including the fact that Khan/Ricardo Montalban could hardly walk unassisted while filming the feature, due to cumulative injuries during his dancing career prior.

Interestingly, I learned tonight be reading stories online that there were rumors that Montalban wore prosthetics to make his upper body appear stronger in the movie. Shatner told us last night that the proud and athletic Montalban tried to make up for his lower body challenges by developing upper body strength. What you see in "Khan" is the real deal.

Going in, I wondered how the movie would stand up to the test of time. 

Fortunately, it was wonderful. Such a great script/story, very much in keeping with the original series. 

And yeah, some of us might have shed a tear or two at the end.

Live long and prosper.

Mission Control

MORNING MEETING: For the last couple of days, many of my friends have been posting their 'back to school' photos of their sharply dressed kids getting on the bus or entering their school building for the first time this year.

Our back-to-school looks a little different. This morning it looked like two kids and two dogs, stretched out a bed, taking part in a remote learning opportunity while still in pajamas. I'll let Annabelle tell you a bit more about it.

This morning, I watched a live presentation on NASA’s DLN (Digital Learning Network) channel about the space probe Cassini’s “Grand Finale.” On September 15, the Cassini probe’s 20 year extended mission will come to a close, with Cassini crashing into the planet Saturn to avoid hitting its moons.

Cassini was originally launched on October 15, 1997, with the purpose of studying Saturn’s moon Titan. The mission was officially known as Cassini-Huygens, named after French-Italian astronomer Giovanni Domencio Cassini (who discovered Saturn’s ring divisions) and Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered the moon Titan. Huygens was the name of the lander that was sent to Titan. This Huygens lander was also the first ever landing in the outer solar system.

The Cassini probe part of the mission continued to orbit Saturn for many years, taking breathtaking photos of Saturn and its rings, even capturing an Eclipse-like photo with the sun shining behind Saturn. At first, the probe was set to arrive in Saturn’s orbit in 2004 and end its mission in 2008, but the mission was extended for 2 years so Cassini could observe Saturn’ spring equinox in 2009. Another extension was then introduced, lasting 6 ½ years until September 15^th of this year. Cassini’s final moments before crashing into Saturn will be transmitting data about the atmosphere back to Earth. 

And here's what CJ had to share ...

This morning, I watched a NASA livestream about the long-running Cassini mission, more specifically, its end. On 15 October 1997, nearly 20 years ago, the rocket containing Cassini was launched into space, thus starting a mission that would provide great insight into Saturn, as well as its moons.

During the livestream, we were introduced to Rex Engelhardt, a longtime NASA engineer and Launch Services Program mission manager. Engelhardt had worked on the Cassini program prior to launching, as well as the Titan IV-B rockets that propelled Cassini. The livestream was also hosted by Todd Barber, an engineer in NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

We got the chance to ask a question that would be answered on the livestream, through contact by e-mail. Specifically, we had asked how long a day on Saturn was. According to Engelhardt, a day on Saturn is 10 hours and 45 minutes long. About 30 people were watching the Livestream, and some of them also asked questions.

The broadcast team shared some of their favorite images from the Cassini mission. 

During its duration, there have been two solar eclipses. This stunning photos captured one of them. 

Image Credit: Cassini Imaging Team, SSI, JPL, ESA, NASA

If you look closely,  far in the distance, at the left (about 10 o'clock), just above the brighter, inner main rings, is the pale blue dot of Earth. That's you, me, and everybody.

At the conclusion of today's program, NASA shared a video about the end of the mission. You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/xrGAQCq9BMU


Editor's note: Some of the 30 watching the broadcast were classrooms with multiple people in them. Still, it seemed like a sparse crowd. And, perhaps it's one reason that NASA's Digital Learning Network is having its plug pulled within a month. :( We have certainly benefited from DLN and will miss the opportunities and information it provided. 

STARMAN: A fond Facebook memory popped up today: This photo of one of Annabelle's Perler bead creations. My favorite, by far. it's David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust.

A year ago today, a photo of this artwork was on a chip on board OSIRIS-REx, the NASA spacecraft set to land on an asteroid, as it lifted off. Set to land in November of 2018, the probe will collect a sample and return home. 

The photo made me wonder where OSIRIS-REx is now, so we did the Google and found this great NASA website: https://www.asteroidmission.org/where-is-the-spacecraft/

Right now OSIRIS-REx is in the 'cruise' portion of its mission. An important part of the cruise is coming up on Sept. 22, 2017, when, after a year orbiting the sun, OSIRIS-REx will make a flyby of Earth. Per NASA, "Earth's gravitational field will pull the spacecraft towards the planet where it can "borrow" a small amount of Earth's orbital energy. This additional energy is used to increase OSIRIS-REx's orbital inclination and sling it back into space for a rendezvous with Bennu."

Imagine the math involved in plotting OSIRIS-REx's course - so impressive!

Bright Lights

PICTURE PERFECT: Back in my photojournalist days (seems like forever ago), I used to routinely share photos on a great site, Morguefile.com. I kinda all but forgot about my stuff there. I was surprised to get an email today letting me know this photo was featured as their "Creative Spotlight." Taken inside EMP/MoPOP, it's probably my favorite photo of CJ Kisky and Annabelle Kisky, ever. On Twitter, when I posted it, EMP said it was their favorite photo (to date) from inside their museum. :)

When I checked in today, I was also a little surprised to find the photos I've parked on Morguefile had been downloaded 277,000 plus times.

Happy to share. It beats the hell out of pics sitting on my hard drive, collecting 'dust.'

All in all, just a plug to say Morguefile.com is a nice place to park photos you think others could benefit from. It's used primarily by journalists and graphic designers from all around the world.

BOOKING: We spent the morning looking at maps of Europe and plotting a path. We're leaving at the end of the month for a 10-day, whirlwind trip, and we're trying to balance seeing things and ground covered with driving time. Lots to consider!

So far, we've figured out Gatwick to Dover (with a stop at Canterbury). Then a ferry to Dunkirk, a drive up to Bruges, a trip over to a labyrinth that encompasses three countries, and a stop at Europe's number one space museum, in Speyer, Germany. 

Then, we need to make our way across the middle of France to Normandy. I really want to see the D-Day museum and beach.

Ambitious plans. Time will tell how it all plays out. ... 

SUN SHOW: Although Ol' Sol is totally muted 'thanks' to the horrific forest fires in our region, word has it that it has been putting on quite a show.

Specifically, we read a post today on Space.com letting us know that the sun had unleashed its most powerful solar flare in a decade.

Credit: SDO/AIA/Steve Spaleta

Video here: https://www.space.com/38057-sun-unleashes-decades-strongest-solar-flare.html?utm_content=bufferad3e1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook

Naturally, my mind went to "I wanna see the Northern Lights!!!" immediately.

However, I have to think the oppressive smoke cover our entire region is experiencing would make it nearly impossible.

Ashes to Ashes

Photo: NASA Terra satellite

SMOKE AND STUFF: This morning we had quite a surprise upon upping. A fine layer of ash covered our cars, laundry left outside, and windowsills and more in our house.

It reminded me of when Mt. St. Helens erupted back in 1980. This time, however, it was wildfires, rather than a volcano, responsible for the blanket of ash.

You could actually watch the ash rain down this morning. Meanwhile, the muted sun was an eerie red burning through the thick layer of smoke. I wanted to stare at the sun for a bit, so I donned our safety glasses left over from the eclipse. But lo and behold, with those on, I couldn't even see the sun! It was too faded by the smoky haze. 

I snapped this photo of the sun yesterday afternoon.

The photo at the top of this post is from the NASA Terra satellite. As you can see, smoke currently covers most of the Pacific NW.

The main source of our ash and smoke is a fire in Cle Elum, about 83 miles to the east and a little south of us.

And today, I watched social media being flooded with photos from my friends in southwest Washington and the Columbia River Gorge area. According to multiple reports some young idiots with fireworks apparently rather purposely set a forest fire there. It's out of control with 10,000 acres gone. So much wildlife and plant life killed, and structures destroyed. Such a shame. 

One photo that keeps showing up is a before and now. 

I saw that photo credit belongs to James C King — with Nicky Colo'n.

SHE'S BACK: In much happier news, this weekend the remarkable Peggy Whitson returned to Earth.

I just love this photo of the Soyuz capsule shortly after it touched down. 

Just imagine ... there are three humans inside that smoking spacecraft, still hot from plummeting through the Earth's atmosphere!

Photo: NASA

Along with record-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson  were crewmates Jack Fischer of NASA and Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos. The trio landed in Kazakhstan at 6:21 p.m. PDT on Sept. 2.

Whitson’s return was at the end of a 288-day mission that began last November and spanned 122.2 million miles and 4,623 orbits of the Earth. It was her third long-duration mission on the station. During her latest mission, Whitson performed four spacewalks, bringing her career total to 10. All totaled, Whitson has spent 665 days in space, which makes her the U.S. record holder on the all-time space endurance list.