Farewell to Cassini, the epic 20 year mission to Saturn
BBC Inside Science
BBC
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 14 September 2017
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As Cassini's epic journey to Saturn finally ends tonight, Adam Rutherford celebrates the incredible discoveries of a mission that has changed the way we see our solar system. BBC Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos is at Mission Control in Pasadena as scientists assemble to witness the final few hours of the Saturnian observations beforeCassini completes its death dive into the planet. We also hear from key scientists who've played a role in capturing and interpreting the multitude of data from the last 12 years.
With contributions from Michele Dougherty, Professor of space physics at Imperial College Robert Brown, Professor Planetary surface processes Arizona University Carl Murray, Professor of Astronomy, Queen Mary,University of London Ellen Stofan, former chief NASA scientist
Producer Adrian Washbourne.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello you this is the podcast of Inside Science from BBC Radio 4 first broadcast on the 14th of September |
| 0:06.4 | 2017 I'm Adam Rutherford this week's show is a very special one devoted to the astonishing achievement that is the |
| 0:13.8 | Cassini mission to Saturn which ended on the night this program was recorded |
| 0:18.0 | but for the podcast listeners that's you there's an extra chunk at the end which is |
| 0:21.7 | the final one of the shortlisted books for the Royal Society book prize. |
| 0:26.0 | It's one that we've done before on the programme earlier this year, |
| 0:29.0 | Other Minds by Peter Godfrey Smith on the wonderful world of octopus cognition. |
| 0:34.0 | Human kind's reach should extend beyond our grasp. |
| 0:38.0 | In space exploration that is always true, but never more so than in the mission Cassini, which ends tonight. |
| 0:45.0 | After a 20-year international interplanatory mission, the spaceship Cassini will become one with |
| 0:50.8 | the planet that it has devoted its attention to for more than a decade. |
| 0:55.1 | At some point in the next 12 hours we will lose signal as Cassini spins out of |
| 0:59.7 | control and the winds of Saturn and we will hear from that amazing spaceship no more. |
| 1:04.4 | It's all meticulously planned. |
| 1:06.2 | Cassini is running on fumes now and this farewell is designed to squeeze the last |
| 1:10.8 | drops of data out of a mission that has already transformed our |
| 1:15.0 | understanding of the solar system and given us such wonder with photos of |
| 1:19.4 | worlds previously unamaged. We're dedicating the whole programme today to Cassini, Saturn and its beautiful rings and intriguing |
| 1:27.1 | moons, the past and future of the mission, what we have learned, what there is still left |
| 1:32.4 | to discover. |
| 1:33.0 | As for the present, BBC Science Correspondent Jonathan Amos is at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California, right now, |
| 1:40.0 | where scientists have gathered to send this bird off. |
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