10 points to anyone who got the reference to an old Neil Armstrong joke and/or the song by Sleeper.
Today's post is dedicated to Dr Carolyn Porco, who is leading the imaging team for the Cassini spacecraft (currently in orbit around Saturn.) Those that know me, know that aside from almond croissants, my secret vice is space. I'm aware of how dull the majority find the subject and as such can come up with a variety of alternate hobbies when questioned.
This doesn't stop the weekly chorus at the pub on a Friday where the boss will lead with: "Come on, Newly, give us this week's sad space fact" and I'll come up with something ranging from the oddball ("How long would an ice cube stay frozen in the cryo-tanks of the Apollo service module?") through to the crowd-pleaser ("Which Apollo astronaut made it to the moon and back without having to, er, make use of the fecal containment system?") and ending with the conspiracy theorists ("I saw this thing on Fox that said the moon landings were faked. It was all pretend, right?")
And so to Dr Carolyn Porco. I've watched a number of documentaries over the years, and she generally pops up as a talking head when anyone needs someone to dish out facts on planetary ring systems (no jokes about "Rings around Uranus", please.) She spotted the spokes in Saturn's rings and was sitting alone in the Voyager imaging room as that spacecraft flew past Saturn, making her the first person to see the back of Saturn.
And here, nearly 25 years later, she's back looking at Saturn. Now that is a heck of a long time to dedicate to one area of study, coupled with the high risk that once the space-craft turned up at the planet, it might not even be still in a state to do any useful science.
So to Dr Porco, and all those passionate enough about their calling to dedicate their lives to it, I salute you from the massed ranks of those of us who are 30 years into their lives and still don't know what to do with them.
