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For Colorado Scientist, Cassini's End Will Include A Sip Of Whiskey

By Karen Morfitt

BOULDER, Colo. (CBS4) - For two decades, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has been sending historical information about Saturn back to Earth and using Colorado-built instruments to help do it. The grand finale is Friday morning.

cassini saturn from nasa and jpl
(credit: NASA/JPL)

The spacecraft will run out of fuel, causing its intentional dive into Saturn's atmosphere at a speed of 70,000 mph -- even in its final moments sending back new information.

"They use the phrase rewrite the textbooks. Cassini has truly rewritten the textbooks," planetary scientist Nick Schneider said.

Schneider would know, because he literally wrote the book on space -- or at least one of them.

"Every time a Cassini discovery comes out, I open up the old edition and I say, 'Well, we're going to have to change this. We're going to have to change that,'" he said.

NASA Ends Cassini Spacecraft Mission
A model of NASA's Cassini spacecraft is seen at Jet Propulsion Laboratory as Cassini nears the end of its 20-year mission by crashing into Saturn, on September 13, 2017 in Pasadena, California. It took Cassini seven years to reach Saturn after its 1997 launch where it has been exploring the ringed planet and its many moons for the past 13 years. It will continue to transmit data and never before seen photos to Earth for as long as possible before breaking up and crashing. (credit: David McNew/Getty Images)

During its time in orbit, Cassini has collected enormous amounts of data about our solar system, specifically the planet Saturn. Its two major discoveries include the moon Titan's methane lakes and a global ocean on the moon Enceladus -- which NASA says has become a promising lead in the search for worlds where life could exist.

"Here's a place that's got liquid water, it's got chemicals and it's got an energy source -- maybe volcanoes -- and a lot of people think that's what you need for life," Schneider said.

One of the key tools used to make those discoveries is Boulder born.

"NASA goes to the University of Colorado when it wants an ultraviolet instrument. That's our instrument on Cassini," Schneider said.

The university's Larry Esposito was key to the instrument's success on the spacecraft. After dedicating his life to the ultraviolet imaging spectrograph onboard Cassini, he will be in California watching as it makes its final contact.

"It's had a spectacular successful run with fantastic results, which changed how the common person is thinking about the planets of our solar system," Esposito said.

For Schneider, the final dive into Saturn's atmosphere and the end of Cassini is bittersweet.

"Scientists, you might think that we are cold, calculating people, but we invest our lives in this," Schneider said.

Esposito says instead of a funeral, he's looking at the end of the mission more like an Irish wake.

"We are going to celebrate and have a drink of whiskey to remember all of the great achievements of the mission," he said.

Karen Morfitt joined the CBS4 team as a reporter in 2013. She covers a variety of stories in and around the Denver metro area. Connect with her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter @karenmorfitt or email her tips.

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