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  • 6/8/2025

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00:00On this beautiful planet Saturn almost a billion miles from Earth a three
00:09billion dollar spacecraft hurtles towards destruction this is no accident
00:17it's a sacrifice to protect what this mission has revealed including a moon
00:23with the building blocks of life geysers are coming from an ocean laced with
00:28organic compounds there could even be life in those plumes we can't risk
00:34contaminating a world where life could evolve untouched by humankind
00:42it's a spectacular end of an extraordinary mission taking us closer
00:47to Saturn than ever before into its orbit and inside its rings for the first time a
01:00mission lands on a world in the depths of our solar system it's truly an
01:07explorer's utopia it's the most exotic place in our solar system for nearly 20
01:12years the Cassini spacecraft operates to perfection with stunning scientific
01:17results but now NASA scientists have to destroy it going in we are not coming out
01:27navigation you'll go in one grand finale Cassini will give this team all it can
01:35this is really the last chance for the scientists to get every bit of data back
01:39before it disappears it's a one-way trip forever
01:46Pasadena California the Cassini mission control room just now waiting for the data
02:00scientists struggle with conflicting emotions exhilaration and grief the
02:09spacecraft they've nurtured for decades performs one final and fatal maneuver a
02:1575,000 miles an hour dive into Saturn's atmosphere this is simultaneously a
02:24celebration of Cassini success and a funereal wake for its coming destruction
02:31many here have dedicated entire careers to this mission a mission capturing a
02:40priceless gallery of beautiful images from space
02:45now Cassini's time is up this is a roller coaster ride we're going in and we are not coming out it's
03:00a one-way trip a 4.9 billion mile voyage of discovery ends in a vapor trail
03:06Cassini dispersing to dust in this alien sky we've never done this before when is the next time we're going to
03:13be able to crash a spacecraft into Saturn we've spent hundreds and thousands of
03:20hours eking out every tiny bit of science and this is just that last hurrah that one
03:27last massive massive bang it's super exciting
03:33but however exciting what on earth possesses the project manager Earl Mays to destroy his
03:40own spacecraft why doing this this is you've got a discovery machine that's
03:45performing flawlessly what's going on part of the answer Cassini's running out of
03:52the fuel it needs to alter direction flying ten times faster than the fastest
03:58aircraft on earth with no one at the wheel heightens the risk of hitting one of
04:05Saturn's moons and that could spell environmental disaster the promise of
04:11life exists at one of them called Enceladus you have liquid water you have
04:18energy and you have organic material so if there's anywhere in the solar system
04:22other than earth where some kind of life could exist it could very well be at
04:27Enceladus Cassini's discovery that life might one day evolve here makes icy
04:33Enceladus the most precious of gems we cannot risk an inadvertent contact with
04:38with that pristine body Cassini's own discoveries were its demise their only
04:43choice was to destroy it in some controlled fashion what NASA calls control
04:50fashion is in fact a ballistic trajectory dive to the death
05:00though Cassini still fights to the end this spacecraft would be in a moment of
05:06panic these thrusters are fighting against all the forces in the atmosphere
05:12trying as hard as it can to keep that antenna port into our earth because
05:16that's our last link and when this atmosphere gets too thick and those
05:20forces get too strong those thrusters can no longer hold the spacecraft
05:23Cassini will be initiating fault protection they'll be trying everything it
05:29possibly can to restore communication swapping antennas but will be overcome by
05:34the atmosphere break up vaporize
05:41this is the story of Cassini's mission told through graphic visualizations based on
05:49scientific data from NASA and with these real photographs from Cassini so good
05:55they revolutionize our understanding of the ringed planet Saturn not only is it
06:01beautiful alluring and mysterious and looks almost supernatural but if you're a
06:08scientist eager to unravel those different processes which have sculpted our solar system
06:17and made it look the way it is today Saturn would be the system you would go to
06:22it is the sixth planet from our Sun and what we see as its surface is really a gigantic ball of helium
06:32and hydrogen it's a gas giant 75,000 miles across almost 10 times the diameter of earth
06:43you could dive into Saturn what you'd see first is a lot of gases and layers of clouds the temperature
06:50goes up and the hydrogen compresses more and more until it starts to become a fluid
06:55and then it goes from what we call molecular state to a metallic state where the hydrogen is so tightly
07:00squeezed together and you can actually have electrical current
07:04so when thousand miles per hour winds rip through its atmosphere we know Saturn is prone to the
07:12eruption of these gigantic storms in an atmosphere like Saturn's there is no friction so once something
07:18gets started it endures for a long time and yet amid the chaos of such storms one feature mysteriously
07:28mysteriously changes little the hexagon six sides almost perfectly unnaturally
07:36straight it was a very almost surreal feature because you don't expect to see
07:42something with straight sides in an atmosphere that can produce clouds and
07:46fluffy things Cassini's photographs now suggest the hexagon is just a hurricane
07:52but it is about 20,000 miles wide at its heart a calm eye of the storm
08:00surrounded by winds reaching 335 miles an hour swirling jet stream currents create
08:09these abnormally straight sides this is a weird planet but if the planet itself is
08:18unusual one feature above all makes it special the rings which surround it
08:26Saturn's rings are the flattest structure known to man they are only in vertical
08:31height about 10 meters tall but from end to end it's the distance from the earth to
08:36the moon the rings are evolving bands of ice and rocks all sucked in and confined
08:44within the same thin disks by the planets massive gravity from a distance they look
08:51as though they're solid they're not you can't stand on Saturn's rings it's not a
08:58solid surface instead there is an enormous number of particles and each one of them
09:03is on its own orbit around the planet those particles range in size from about
09:08the size of a marble to about the size of a house rings are not the only heavenly
09:14bodies circling this planet moons are everywhere you look it has a very large
09:22and diverse collection of moons all told there's more than 60 of them from rocks
09:28about a third of a mile across to one almost the size of Mars they each have a
09:34story to tell it's everything you want to discover as a planetary explorer the
09:40irresistible lore of Saturn it's those rings those moons the giant storms there's a mini
09:49planetary system right there just a tremendous number of mysteries
09:53all systems are go NASA has to go to Saturn
10:02five four three two one and lift off of the city spacecraft on a billion mile trek to Saturn
10:15to know that it was going to get to Saturn it was going to cross the solar system was one of those
10:22moments you just feel big you feel like wow I'm not only a creature on this planet I'm reaching
10:38for another planet that is ten times farther away from the Sun than the Earth is
10:43even before its launch it takes the skills of hundreds over two years to build a spacecraft
10:54as big as a school bus this is Cassini the spacecraft is phenomenal project manager Earl Mays thank you Jim
11:05Earl Mays leads the team on this ambitious mission absolutely bristling with instruments
11:12on board tools to see hear taste and smell Saturn and her moons in intimate detail a European probe
11:23for the first landing this far out in space on Saturn's biggest moon Titan
11:28and two engine systems each with backups in reserve a main engine burning nitrogen tetroxide and hydrazine
11:41fuel for major maneuvers and smaller thrusters for minor adjustments it is well over 5,000 kilos nearly
11:5012,000 pounds almost all of that propellant making sure the tanks don't run dry is the job of
11:57of Todd Barber everything looks great nominal the Cassini propulsion system is the most complex
12:03interplanetary propulsion system ever built main engine thrust is a tried and tested system
12:11an older design used for early missions like Apollo
12:16we felt it was a proven technology it could be used on Cassini for decades way out into space
12:23the sun's energy-giving rays grow weaker solar panels would be little used to Cassini passing distant
12:31planets it needs a far longer lasting source of power the radioactive power of plutonium 238
12:41in Idaho Falls behind high-level security the United States Department of Energy harnesses this prized source
12:48the Cassini mission required more nuclear power than any other mission in NASA's history
12:56three heavily shielded thermoelectric generators transform the heat of radioactive decay into electrical
13:03power they hold iridium coated plutonium pellets lasting for decades but potentially deadly to life
13:11that energy source is what keeps Cassini's cameras taking pictures and powers its radio messages back to earth
13:22it runs all the devices on the spacecraft plus the residual heat is funneled into the spacecraft
13:29and keeps all the instruments warm and in their proper operating range
13:33a absolutely FIFA moment when the cloud is falling apart from our spacecraft but how do you stay warm
13:37when outside temperatures are dropping to minus 364 degrees Fahrenheit?
13:43you wrap up in a blanket
13:46in this room at nasa's jet propulsion lab there is over a million dollars worth of them
13:52this is the fabric we use to shield Cassini and protect it against the
13:57environmental fluxes of space
13:58more than 20 layers of specialized fabric protect Cassini not real gold but
14:05colored aluminized materials $60,000 worth Cassini was one of the most
14:11challenging spacecrafts to even you know undertake it was menacing to think that
14:17we had to develop shielding for this entire spacecraft
14:24it's taken decades of dreaming designing building and testing now the
14:33mission is ready to go
14:40heading for Saturn Cassini harnesses gravitational energy from the planets to
14:47slingshot it onwards a maneuver known as a flyby
14:52took us to Venus flybys and an earth flyby to even get ourselves out past
14:57earth orbit the earth flyby is just over 700 miles above the surface it's risky
15:06we had to be extremely cautious managing Cassini so that we ensured no risk of
15:13inadvertently bringing plutonium back into the earth's atmosphere the gamble pays
15:18off with a safe boost of speed and a first test of the cameras we took images
15:25of the moon and they were crisp and wonderful and kind of our first dress
15:29rehearsal running it through its paces directly ahead millions of loose rocks
15:37orbiting in the asteroid belt spacecraft have passed safely before even so the
15:43risk that particles of space dust might damage this long-distance mission is too
15:49great to take there was some data that was analyzed that the asteroid belt was a
15:56dangerous enough area that we should cover the main engines Julie Webster is the
16:02lead pilot of the spacecraft she leaned on the team who created Cassini's thermal
16:07blankets to design a cover it took months and months of patterning and testing
16:13efforts to come up with that main engine cover it had two motors it also had
16:19pyrotechnic devices so that it could be blown off if necessary Cassini survives
16:26unscathed and heads out for Jupiter the next planet in line we were constantly
16:34building and developing even while Cassini was flying that whole process came to
16:41head in Jupiter at 2000 2001 where we actually exercised the entire system with
16:47the king of the planets I'll never forget it our first images of Jupiter just
16:53impressed the hell out of me the image was so detailed that told me it was going to be
17:01just a sensational tour through the Saturn system Cassini not only sees Jupiter it
17:11also hears the solar winds in Jupiter's massive magnetic field we actually had a full suite of
17:18scientific measurements you could think of it as a full-up test for arriving at Saturn
17:23June 2004 it's taken seven years to get here now speeding towards Saturn at over 60,000 miles an hour hoping
17:38to go into orbit but going far too fast Cassini must slam on its brakes if you miss that orbit insertion
17:47you have a flyby mission if it did not work we've never see the ring planet again in space so much can go wrong we have dust we have potential radiation which could reset our computers we ran test after test after test after test it was incredibly important that we did everything right
18:08good evening and welcome to Cassini Huygens mission control at NASA's jet propulsion laboratory
18:15it was a white knuckle moment during orbit insertion mission control can only receive a weak signal from the spacecraft
18:24the way its frequency changes the Doppler effect gives the only clue to Cassini's position and Saturn's rings repeatedly interrupt the signal
18:35we see the signal coming in and out flickering if you will like a little light bulb
18:41there was a 90 minutes of just apprehension while we every time we saw it hope still looking good hope still looking good
18:47at some point it was going to be over we were either in orbit or not
18:52finally it got the call from navigation
18:56that flat unchanging Doppler signal is the sign they've been waiting for
19:08we couldn't have been more excited at that point because we're in orbit
19:13it was such a relief it was so flawless and seamless it was like a dream
19:19this spacecraft's been an incredible joy to fly
19:23we stand on the shoulders of people that had 40 years of experience in building and designing this spacecraft
19:29and I salute them
19:32it was just an incredible event
19:35after this triumph time for the builders and navigators to take a back seat
19:41it's kind of like the mantle went from the engineers over to the imaging team
19:46real photographs captured by Cassini create an art collection like no other
19:53celebrating its trip
19:55and its arrival in orbit
19:58a particular sense of pride for one scientist
20:02I wanted to be the captain of the windows you know on the ship
20:06Carolyn Porco leads the camera team
20:11she more than anyone appreciates the beauty of this world
20:18here's an image that really says what it is that's so glorious about Saturn
20:24this true image is a composite of 141 separate photographs
20:30taken from Cassini's wide-angle camera
20:37the rings they look as if they're glowing because they're being lit from the sun from behind
20:42and then in the distance a billion miles of the distance you see our pale blue dot of a planet earth
20:47it makes it so much more meaningful to know that at the moment this picture was taken there were people
20:53there were homo sapiens on that little dot
21:00Cassini's cameras take black and white pictures
21:03just one megapixel less resolution than today's smartphones
21:07but multiple images through different color filters
21:10let NASA produce true-to-life color photographs
21:14what your own eyes would see looking out from Cassini
21:18around Saturn those cameras find moon after moon
21:25possible habitable environment
21:27Linda Spilker is the mission's project scientist
21:30prior to Cassini there may be on the order of 50 or so moons
21:34and we've discovered so many more
21:37among the 62 now recognized moons are some of the most alluring
21:42Phoebe a retrograde moon orbiting Saturn in the opposite direction to almost every
21:47one else Hyperion the appearance of undersea coral an asymmetrical shape and chaotic rotation
21:56the giant crater of Tethys Saturn's fifth largest moon is like an eye looking out to space
22:04and this is Iapetus with a ridge at its equator
22:09it's old you can see craters that have broken it up
22:12and so we're wondering did Iapetus spin very quickly early on
22:16and sort of bulged out then its surface hardened
22:20or perhaps Iapetus had a ring and the ring at its equator
22:23maybe those ring particles fell to the surface and created that ridge
22:27and then there's the king of Saturn's moons
22:31with Cassini orbiting Saturn again and again
22:38it's time to detach the European Huygens probe
22:43its mission to visit the largest moon of all Titan
22:50pictures from previous NASA missions give glimpses of this enigmatic cloud shrouded world
23:08Titan is the only moon in our solar system with a substantial atmosphere
23:12that atmosphere obscures the surface and before the Cassini mission
23:16we actually didn't know whether the surface of Titan was a global liquid ocean or a solid body
23:23Titan fascinates Alex Hayes
23:26a scientist with Cassini's radar team
23:29he's desperate to know what lies within and beneath its clouds
23:34work with his students on earth suggest clues to terrain he might find on Titan
23:40hi everybody welcome to soda dry lake
23:43Titan is truly an explorer's utopia
23:46not only as a complex environment where we can learn about the processes that shape landscapes
23:50but also its connection to understanding the emergence of life on other worlds
23:55the dangers facing this first touchdown on any moon outside of our own are overwhelming
24:02a descent into the true unknown
24:05no clue as to what sort of surface awaits it
24:10it was a massive challenge for one of the design chiefs
24:14John Czarnecki
24:16of course we didn't know what we were going to land on
24:19was it going to be a splashdown
24:21was it going to be a hard landing on an icy surface
24:26or was it going to be something in between
24:28something sludgy even
24:30the probe from distant earth is diving blind into the clouds
24:35since we didn't know what we were going to land on
24:38the probe was designed to make its measurements
24:41during the descent through the atmosphere
24:44Huygens must float down as slowly as possible
24:47collecting valuable data about the chemical composition of Titan's atmosphere
24:53the solution?
24:54a complex 3 parachute system
24:57chute 1 deploys on entry
24:59pulling off a protective cover
25:01just seconds later
25:03main chute deployment
25:05and the heat shield falls away
25:07then around 70 miles above Titan
25:10the last chute of all
25:12and a slow and steady descent
25:15that if all goes well
25:17takes two and a half hours to the surface
25:19because we couldn't guarantee that we'd survive
25:23the probe was designed to make its measurements
25:27during the descent through the atmosphere
25:29of course we were hoping it would survive the landing
25:33Huygens has hitchhiked over 2.2 billion miles
25:37on the back of Cassini to reach this destination
25:43now its moment of glory has come
25:46I shall always remember it
25:48because we had to jettison the Huygens probe
25:52from the Cassini craft on Christmas Day
25:55it was pushed away
25:57sent on essentially a collision course with Titan
26:02the release was flawless
26:08and we had a couple of very nice optical navigation images
26:13of the probe as it left the spacecraft
26:15so we knew we were spot-on on the trajectory
26:17from this point of separation
26:23it's a further three weeks before the probe reaches Titan
26:26this took us to the middle of January
26:29to the fateful day
26:31when whatever would happen was going to happen
26:34there was nothing we could do about it
26:36welcome back to the Huygens arrival
26:40on Saturn's moon Titan
26:42the capsule survived the entry
26:44and has been transmitting its signal
26:46back to the Cassini orbiter
26:48almost 40 miles above the surface
26:52sinking slowly on its parachutes
26:55this real picture from the probe
26:57reveals what lies under the clouds
27:00the Huygens probe made this beautiful mosaic
27:03showing how earth like Titan is
27:05liquid rains out of the sky
27:07flows on the surface
27:09and carves beautiful dendritic channels
27:12flowing down mountain passes and shallow slopes
27:14at the base of those slopes
27:16there are dune fields that are similar to
27:18the size and shape of dunes that you find in Africa
27:20we saw the data being received
27:26we were watching it
27:28and then somebody shouted out
27:31we've hit the surface
27:33we have detected an impact with the surface
27:42this is still very early of course
27:44the photographs on landing reveal a fascinating landscape
27:50this image was a total shock
27:54where you see the Titan horizon in the background
27:57and you see a field strewn with cobbles
28:01the best news it's a soft but firm surface
28:05it feels like damp sand
28:07the probe transmits till its batteries die
28:10we had planned for three minutes on the surface
28:14and the data kept coming
28:16we just couldn't believe it
28:18we got 72 minutes on the surface
28:23Cassini's findings get better and better
28:29in a hundred plus flybys
28:31its radar pierces Titans clouds
28:34one of the most striking discoveries that the Cassini radar made
28:37was the discovery of lakes and seas in Titan's polar terrain
28:40the largest of which are similar in size and shape to the earth's great lakes
28:44but these lakes aren't filled with water
28:46water would freeze on Titan
28:48instead Cassini detects liquid methane
28:51methane on Titan behaves like water does here on earth
28:55we're starting to see activity on these lake surfaces
28:58as the winds pick up
28:59wind waves are starting to be kicked up on the liquid surface
29:02it's a revelation for those who study Titan
29:07it's so much resembles the earth
29:12but discoveries on another moon
29:14truly shake the world of science
29:19that moment comes in February 2005
29:22seven years four months into the mission
29:25a flyby of the ice moon Enceladus
29:28utterly changes the game
29:30mysterious sprays of mist are spurting from the surface
29:35these were the first images in which we saw the plume
29:38coming off the south pole of Enceladus
29:40this was it this was the start
29:42the imaging team very carefully processed their data
29:46before saying yes I think we can see
29:48that there actually is a plume of material
29:51made up of individual jets and perhaps curtains of material
29:54coming out from the south pole of Enceladus
29:57the spray coalesces to form a faint ring
30:00with Enceladus at its heart
30:02just a seventh the size of Earth's moon
30:05Enceladus is proving to be an enigma
30:08moons this small are normally dead and inactive
30:12liquid sprays being pumped into space
30:15just shouldn't be happening
30:16then above a surface frozen to minus 330 degrees Fahrenheit
30:24Cassini find something
30:28we found that there was heat leaking out at the south pole
30:33there was water vapor dust organic material streaming out
30:38which meant that there was some kind of activity taking place in the interior
30:45Enceladus grows curiouser and curiouser
30:49and scientists know they have to go back
30:53this was the benefit of being in orbit
30:57if this had happened on a flyby
30:59we'd be looking at Enceladus in the rearview mirror
31:01never having had the chance to go and see what was really there
31:14for scientists on Earth
31:16altering an orbit to fly past Enceladus
31:18over 700 million miles away is far from easy
31:22an astrodynamicist nightmare
31:27Brent Buffington is the navigator
31:30the problem lands in his lap
31:33this mission has been anything but straightforward
31:36we have to adapt we have to be agile
31:39to make sure that we don't put a three billion dollar asset in harm's way
31:47these flybys are planned out many many months
31:49and sometimes years in advance
31:51and so if something is discovered and we can do something about it
31:53we'll stop at nothing
31:54we'll work literally day and night
31:56in order to make these new observations
31:59that the scientists you know desperately want to make happen
32:04pressure is building to rethink the route map
32:08immediately the scientists wanted to get much much closer
32:11to get high resolution imaging
32:13but also move the closest approach from the northern hemisphere
32:15to the southern hemisphere
32:17we finally arrived at a solution
32:19and we lowered the altitude from a thousand kilometers
32:21all the way down to 165 kilometers
32:24this pass is seven times closer than the first flyby
32:28the discoveries are worth the diversion
32:32this was the flyby where we saw for the very first time
32:36these fissures in the south polar region
32:38what was later named the tiger stripes
32:40the stripes are gaping wounds
32:42where pressure from below opens vents to the surface
32:45they're marked by whiter
32:47fresher ice solidifying along the cracks
32:50we saw about a dozen or more jets
32:54erupting 200 or more kilometers above the surface of the south pole
32:59we strongly suspected that these were geysers
33:02that this was vapor and particles coming from these fractures
33:09nothing now is more important than Enceladus
33:13wanted to go back again and again to learn more
33:16and even fly through and taste what was coming out of those jets
33:21the scientists thirst for knowledge can butt up against the need for spacecraft safety
33:30and the guardian of that is Julie Webster
33:32the engineering team is the 900 pound gorilla
33:35if we don't think it's safe we win
33:38but you're there to take science
33:41so if you don't take the data because you're too scared
33:43you're not going to get what you're there for
33:45we had to learn a lot about this plume
33:48what was it made of?
33:49how dense was it?
33:50was it variable in time?
33:52variable in geometry?
33:54to answer such questions
33:56Cassini dices with real danger
33:59we're talking about an object
34:01that's over a billion kilometers from earth
34:03we went all the way down to 25 kilometers from the surface
34:07a very, very hard surface
34:10going, you know, in excess of
34:138 or 10 kilometers per second
34:16we're moving
34:18the terrifying maneuver reveals how active this moon is
34:22we found over 101 geysers
34:25and material coming from the fractures
34:28and other teams found that the vapor contains simple organic compounds
34:32those geysers are coming from an ocean
34:35that is salty
34:37comparable to the salinity of the earth's ocean
34:40and it's shooting into space
34:42the heat discovered at Enceladus
34:45suggests there could be hydrothermal vents under its ocean floor
34:49similar features on earth are known to harbor life
34:53here is this tiny world with a liquid water ocean underneath its icy crust
35:00with the possibility of hydrothermal vents on its seafloor
35:03so you have all the key ingredients for life
35:06water, a source of energy and nutrients coming from the hydrothermal vents
35:11this could just be the greatest discovery in science
35:15the potential for life outside of our planet
35:20you have liquid water, you have energy and you have organic material
35:23so if there's anywhere in the solar system other than earth
35:26where some kind of life could exist
35:29it could very well be at Enceladus
35:32it could very well be at Enceladus
35:35April 2017
35:37the Cassini spacecraft has been at Saturn for 13 years
35:41with fuel tanks almost empty
35:44Cassini's time is up
35:46it cannot be allowed to fly on any longer
35:49there's a theoretical chance that microbes from earth could have survived on board
35:55Cassini is essentially at about 72 degrees inside the spacecraft
36:00and so if there are little microbes in there that don't mind a vacuum
36:04they could just last forever
36:06NASA has a duty
36:09never to contaminate another world with life from earth
36:13Cassini has got to be put safely away
36:16we need to dispose of the spacecraft
36:18such that we don't pollute any pristine body in the Saturn system
36:24Enceladus has got a warm salt water under sea ocean
36:29we cannot risk an inadvertent contact with that pristine body
36:33a painful moment for the NASA team
36:36but they're asking Cassini for one last push before it dies
36:41we are going to dive between the rings of Saturn and Saturn's atmosphere
36:47a place no spacecraft's ever gone
36:50we're going to be going 70,000 miles per hour into a 1,200 mile wide gap
36:55a maneuver so risky
36:57it could only be asked of a spacecraft they needed to kill
37:01even a piece of sand at that velocity could cripple the spacecraft
37:10Brent Buffington and the navigation team are once again thinking the impossible
37:15there's a 2,000 kilometer gap between the upper atmosphere of Saturn
37:18and the inner portion of the D ring
37:20and so if we can jump with a single Titan gravity assist
37:23the entire main ring system to impact Saturn
37:26we can stop a little short and put the spacecraft in this small little gap
37:30The only hope of hitting that gap is one last gravity assist from Titan
37:35a single gravity assist of Titan can change the velocity of the spacecraft
37:42by more than 800 meters per second
37:46heading between planet surface and rings is threading the eye of a needle
37:51no one knows what to expect
37:54could be errant ring particles there that are quite big
37:59it's not out of the question we could collide with one
38:03my first reaction is
38:06are you kidding me?
38:09how can you tell me that I can safely do this?
38:12and then it's
38:14well let me think about it
38:16well
38:17no maybe we could do that
38:19if the plan works
38:21Cassini will boldly go where no spacecraft has gone before
38:25a final 22 orbits answering the scientists final questions
38:31we're going in for the closer look
38:33we're going to be measuring the magnetic field of Saturn
38:36this will allow us to finally determine what the interior rotation rate is on Saturn
38:43what the day is on Saturn because we still don't know
38:46and also we're taking images at a level of detail that we haven't had before
38:51we've planned to go out on the highest of highs
38:56it's showtime
38:58no chance now to turn back Cassini's grand finale
39:01at midnight tonight
39:03will be the first time Cassini turns back to the earth
39:06sends a signal and lets us know
39:08that it successfully navigated through
39:11this gap where it's flown
39:13for the very very first time
39:15I have a major sign of relief
39:38it's very very good
39:42congratulations everyone
39:45everything was just
39:47it was absolutely perfect
39:49thank you
39:51good job
39:52exhale finally
39:53that risk of diving through the rings
39:56is rewarded with the closest pictures yet
39:59Saturn's cloud tops closer than ever before
40:04lightning, blobs of ammonia
40:07and the hurricane heart at the planet's north pole
40:11the resolution's just going to get better and better and better
40:16from then
40:18a steady stream of images and information starts pouring in
40:23more pictures
40:24adding to those already collected
40:27we're so close with some of the ring images
40:30I almost feel like I can reach out and touch the rings or the ring particles
40:35Cassini's images are not only scientifically interesting
40:38but they're beautiful as well
40:40we have some nice images to show
40:41we have some nice images to show
40:42there's a little satellite called Pan
40:44it has a thin ring around it
40:46looks like a bowler hat
40:47no one would have thought
40:48the structure like that could exist
40:50until we actually saw it
40:52I think the biggest surprise is the fact that
40:55the gap between the edge of the ring and the upper atmosphere
40:59is almost empty of dust
41:01they've dubbed it the big empty
41:03making it easier for the team to get the measurements they hoped for
41:08and for now
41:09the scientists are loving not only the data
41:13but also the view
41:15it really makes you feel like you're right there
41:18in the cockpit with Cassini
41:20you have ring shadows across it
41:23looming right next to you on your left
41:26and then to your right you're looking out over the rings
41:29from the inside
41:30it's a view of the Saturn system that no one has ever seen before
41:36Cassini's grand finale has lived up to its billing
41:40but it is a finale
41:44and the end is in sight
41:47the Cassini Huygens mission exceeds all possible expectations
41:59and lift off of the Cassini spacecraft on a trip to Saturn
42:04from a launch two decades ago
42:08a three billion dollar craft flies 2.2 billion miles to Saturn
42:14discovering new worlds
42:21capturing unique images of the ringed planet
42:28landing on its largest moon
42:34finding lakes of liquid methane
42:38making scientists think the almost unthinkable
42:41in some cases possible habitable environment
42:45that life could exist in the solar system
42:48outside of our earth
42:50and at last diving deeper and closer than anyone could have imagined
42:56inside the rings of this gas giant planet
43:00these are Cassini's final hours of life
43:11and still it gathers data right up to the end
43:15we're essentially going to reprise all of our great investigations
43:18we have a picture of Enceladus
43:20Titan Saturn
43:23the magnetic fields and particles and the rings
43:25so for the first ten or so hours
43:28on Cassini's last day
43:30it will play all those images out to the world
43:32we're going to do a farewell mosaic
43:34where we will take in the entire system
43:37for the last time
43:38and then as we start to move closer in
43:41as we start to descend toward the clouds
43:44we will be taking some images as we go
43:46but eventually the images will kind of fuzz out to a blur
43:50even as the cameras die
43:53key instruments work on
43:55for the very last measurements of all
43:57in mission control
44:00Molly Bitnett is one of Cassini's final lifelines
44:03making sure all the science gets back to earth
44:07the last three hours of the mission are so critical
44:11we've never done this before
44:13it's my job to really make sure that all the intense calculations
44:16we've done with these data rates are correct
44:18and it's really important to make sure that every last bit of data gets back
44:23it is a little bit like watching live TV
44:27as soon as it's collecting data
44:29it's immediately sending it back out
44:31that last message home
44:35takes 84 minutes to be picked up on earth
44:38by then Cassini will be dying
44:42we are going to finish this up with a grand finale end up
44:46a spectacular ending
44:49this is total destruction
44:53friction between the speeding craft and the gas of the atmosphere
44:57sends temperatures soaring to unsurvivable heights
45:01around 4500 degrees Fahrenheit
45:04its metal first melts
45:06and then starts to boil
45:085,000 degrees hotter than the hottest volcanoes on earth
45:14and the final survivors
45:15those nuclear casings
45:17plunging deep down into the atmosphere
45:20the plutonium they contain vaporizing into gas
45:24there's personal connection
45:33and a sense of loss
45:35the spacecraft will never have a chance to call home
45:41we humankind have been at Saturn for 13 years
45:47we are connected and we've connected the entire planet
45:49it'll be weird to know that Cassini is no longer orbiting Saturn
45:54it is now part of Saturn
45:56this mission and anyone that's been associated with it
45:59should just hold their heads up
46:00because it has just rewritten the books
46:04it's just been phenomenal
46:06because it was such a success
46:09this will always be a sense of pride that I have
46:12I'll be able to say hey I was a part of that
46:14knowing that we did everything possible to maximize the amount of science
46:19for the 13 years it was in orbit
46:21and populate textbooks for the next couple of decades
46:25I mean I feel pretty damn good about that
46:29people will be analyzing the data for 10, 20, probably 30 years
46:35so many things went right
46:37there won't be another spacecraft like Cassini
46:40if you're in the business of exploring planets
46:44it doesn't get any more exciting than this
46:47been a ride of a lifetime
46:51and I would not trade it for anything