And Now The Science Bit

When I was primary school age I was asked by a grown up what I'd like to do when I grew up. I said I'd really like to be an astronaut, but that the first manned missions to Mars where planned for the early 1980s, and I wouldn't be old enough to make it through training in time to be part of it, and pulled out my set of full colour illustrated science encyclopedias to support squishing that dream.

Of course chasing that Red Planet ambition would have been fruitless for a different reason, by the time we actually get there I'll be too old, or dead. When I think about that, part of me can't help but be disappointed. Not because I didn't get to be an astronaut, not because I'll never get to go to Mars, but because there's a good chance I won't get to see someone else do it. I can't help feeling NASA has let that little boy down.

Of course it's not NASA's fault. If they had the funding they'd be scooting around the solar system in craft like the Antares from the recent TV series Defying Gravity.

And the truth is that the world's space agencies are doing amazing things, like Cassini. Cassini is a small spacecraft in orbit around Saturn.

Perhaps you've already seen the Pac-Man picture from Cassini [below]. This is an image of the tiny moon Mimas, which orbits Saturn. Cassini measured temperature differences across the moon's surface and produced a map that looks just like the 1980s Pac-Man video game icon. At the moment, the boffins aren't sure why Mimas should display such variations. They speculate that it could be related to the diversity of textures in the surface materials. Apparently some textures may retain heat better than others.

It's an amazing picture, and it's incredible that we've got a spacecraft the size of a big bus to Saturn, and it's brilliant that we're learning more about our universe. I think even primary school age me approves.

For fact boys:
Cassini is a joint venture between the US space agency (Nasa), the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
Its mission was recently extended through to 2017.
Mimas is about 400km (250 miles) across.

For little boys:
Mimas has a distinctive scar called Herschel Crater which makes it look like the "Death Star" from the Star Wars movies.