From the Chiasmus Archive: "Cassini (space probe): Will plunge into Saturn on September 15th 2017. Posted on August 30, 2017 CHIASMUS MAGAZINE BLOG"

(The small ice moon Rhea in front of Saturn.  I have added subtle hues to Saturn, kept Rhea as achromatic with a purple/blue on it’s light side – showing the ionization from Saturn’s magnetosphere)

The unmanned spacecraft Cassini named after the French/Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini (1712) who first discovered that rings of Saturn and also four of it’s moons.    After 13yrs in orbit around Saturn and taking the most incredible raw (non colored) images of the gas giant, it’s moons and intricate footage of Saturn’s rings.  On the 15th September 2017 Cassini will be sent into the atmosphere of Saturn, in a controlled decent by using Titan’s gravity –  as a finale to it’s complete destruction.

Originally part of the Cassini-Huygens, with the Huygen (named after Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens d1695) which separated in 2005 as the Titan (Saturn moon) lander from Cassini.  Huygen successfully was able to receive and send back to NASA images of it’s decent onto Titan.  Due to software issues was unable to send a full quota of photos back from the Titan surface.

At an overall cost of $3.26 billion one can’t help but ask; in reference to the argument that Cassini must be destroyed as it poses, speculatively, an interplanetary contamination risk to possible biological contamination  of  ‘alien’ bacterial life on Saturn’s moons.  Why destroy the craft?  When Huygen was placed on Titan, with the assumption that it poses no risk to microbiological  life, due to the hypothesis that Titan’s oceans are deeper within the surface.   All throw around theories while a craft, that essentially could orbit for decades around Saturn will be destroyed along with it’s price tag.

But, for now, we may dream and find inspiration by it’s images that have been sent back.  Manipulate them, play with them, remove the false color (NASA imposed), create a story about Saturn’s moon ‘Titan’ and the space-probes Cassini and Huygen.  Be critical and be full of praises.   Because you ain’t getting paid, so might as well utilize as much as you can.

Make it yours.

________________________

My short story NOVUS STELLA (2016) discusses the last of the Solar System salvage missions.

“The last of the Solar System salvage missions, The Delphi and it’s crew have been alerted to a potential salvage around the moon Ganymede. A ship called the Novus Stella, launched years ago has now reappeared in a retrograde orbit around Jupiter’s largest moon. The crew of the Delphi will encounter an event that will make them question their very existence.”

From Novus Stella story of the novel Paradox of the Locus (Adrian Glass 2016)