Saturn’s Rings

Bobbing and diving between those multi-coloured rings
The Cassini probe will be playing hide and seek
Sending back more pictures to make NASA sing
Somehow dispelling strange Saturn’s mystique

This intrepid space adventure, extraordinary mission
Initiated as far back as nineteen, ninety-seven
Was for many long years the controllers’ ambition
Tracked at each stage on its endless progression

But now this robotic spacecraft is near the end of the line
Having scored many targets, new knowledge discovered
Moons observed and recorded as in first design
Its all-seeing instruments new secrets uncovered

But the mission has not yet reached final conclusion
In September its flirting with rings will eventually end
Cassini will take one final plunge to its own self-destruction
But its lifetime achievements will all our losses transcend

Ken Fisher

Quote:

Thursday April 27

8.25am BST: NASA tweeted: “The gap between Saturn and its rings is no longer unexplored space – and we’re going back 21 times.”
The spacecraft has survived the first-ever dive between Saturns rings.
The team is now planning 21 more dives before the space probe does a death plunge into the planet.