Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Cassini-Huygens

Yesterday evening was one of the greatest evenings I had in a while. It was an evening with the three project managers of the space satellite Cassini-Huygens which was sent to explore Saturn and Titan, its biggest moon and the only moon in the solar system possessing an atmosphere around it. Let me start with the only downside of it. It was the fact that the host was kept calling them the first men on Titan, and at one point actually comparing them with Buzz, Neil, and Edwin. Hearing it for the first time was kind of amusing but when he felt like having fun with what he had come up he used it in his every line during the last ten minutes of the program which was certainly annoying- and for everybody!
The presentation was titled "The Cassini-Huygens: One year later". It was presented in French and in "Cite de l'Espace" (Toulouse's Space Museum) and it was organized also by ESA. The three top engineers of the project presented the mission in turns and with really interesting details and then came the best part. We went to the planetarium and started watching a half an hour exclusive movie about Saturn and its moons. It was so great and amazing, at the moment I wished the time would stand still or the thing that was going on would go forever. It was like being in a dream. I know this seems too much but I can't explain it. Although I was in the same place two weeks ago and watching another amazing show of the stars but this was something extraordinary, giving you the feeling that you are floating and flying in the sky going anywhere you like and stopping by the beautiful planet and its moons to admire their beauties.

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