WEBVTT FILE 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.569 >>KATRINA: All of the people involved with NASA’s Cassini 2 00:00:02.569 --> 00:00:05.706 spacecraft are preparing for Cassini’s final plunge into the 3 00:00:05.706 --> 00:00:09.977 planet Saturn on September 15th. One small portion of the people 4 00:00:09.977 --> 00:00:13.614 who have spent years working on Cassini includes the team behind 5 00:00:13.614 --> 00:00:16.884 the CIRS instrument, the Composite Infrared Spectrometer. 6 00:00:16.884 --> 00:00:21.088 CIRS was built right here at the Goddard Space Flight Center, and 7 00:00:21.088 --> 00:00:24.057 has been massively successful in operating without a single 8 00:00:24.057 --> 00:00:27.828 command error in 13 years, and delivering groundbreaking 9 00:00:27.828 --> 00:00:30.731 thermal and compositional data of Saturn and its moons. 10 00:00:30.731 --> 00:00:34.067 Personally I think that the people behind the scenes in the 11 00:00:34.067 --> 00:00:36.737 trenches operating the instrument are just as 12 00:00:36.737 --> 00:00:40.207 interesting as the scientific discoveries they’ve enabled. The 13 00:00:40.207 --> 00:00:43.210 CIRS team includes software engineers, project scientists, 14 00:00:43.210 --> 00:00:46.246 people who calibrate the data, people who write commands for 15 00:00:46.246 --> 00:00:49.549 the instrument, and more. Some have been on the team for just a 16 00:00:49.549 --> 00:00:52.753 couple years, while some have been working with CIRS for over 17 00:00:52.753 --> 00:00:57.057 two decades. How do you describe the CIRS team and your group of 18 00:00:57.057 --> 00:01:02.996 people? --Ahem. [laughter] --In what terms? --Can we cut? 19 00:01:02.996 --> 00:01:06.400 --Glowing! Glowing terms! >>MARCIA: We’re more like a 20 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:09.536 family than a group of colleagues at this point. We’ve 21 00:01:09.536 --> 00:01:16.009 had, no one has left the team in a decade, so. >>EVER: Oh yes 22 00:01:16.009 --> 00:01:19.613 every time I go into a meeting no matter my mood, I always, 23 00:01:19.613 --> 00:01:21.748 these people always make me laugh, because they’re always, 24 00:01:21.748 --> 00:01:25.552 it’s always funny, yes. >>KIMBERLY: I’ve found that too, 25 00:01:25.552 --> 00:01:27.554 because before you walk in the door, you hear all this laughter 26 00:01:27.554 --> 00:01:29.890 coming from the room, like before the meeting starts, 27 00:01:29.890 --> 00:01:32.025 during the meeting, and as we’re on our way out the door, so. 28 00:01:32.025 --> 00:01:34.962 >>MONTE: Yeah it’s critical to be able to get along because it 29 00:01:34.962 --> 00:01:38.398 takes so much to get these commands up to the instrument. 30 00:01:38.398 --> 00:01:41.101 There’s a lot of planning that goes on in the background, 31 00:01:41.101 --> 00:01:44.237 months in advance before they’re ever set up. >>MARCIA: We have, 32 00:01:44.237 --> 00:01:48.375 there are members who are very close outside of the office. 33 00:01:48.375 --> 00:01:53.914 We’ve had a sort of a relationship start as friendship 34 00:01:53.914 --> 00:01:59.152 bloom into something. >>VALERIA: Well for example we met when I 35 00:01:59.152 --> 00:02:04.858 came here, and we were just friends for many many years. 36 00:02:04.858 --> 00:02:08.795 Right? >>SHANE: That’s the story we’re told and we’re going with 37 00:02:08.795 --> 00:02:11.164 it. >>VALERIA: But then one day she posted it on Facebook a 38 00:02:11.164 --> 00:02:14.134 picture of us getting married. >> SHANE: We’re all very happy 39 00:02:14.134 --> 00:02:19.740 for you. >>NICO: Thank you. And now we have a boy. >>VALERIA: 40 00:02:19.740 --> 00:02:22.242 Three years old. >>NICO: A Cassini baby. >>VALERIA: A 41 00:02:22.242 --> 00:02:25.812 Cassini baby, yes. >>NICO: Super smart. [babbling in French, 42 00:02:25.812 --> 00:02:28.181 pretending to call JPL] >>SHANE: We have a lot of Cassini babies 43 00:02:28.181 --> 00:02:31.651 though. All your kids, my kids. Terry’s got a bunch yeah, 44 00:02:31.651 --> 00:02:35.389 Carrie’s got a bunch, Carly’s got a bunch. You don’t have any. 45 00:02:35.389 --> 00:02:37.724 >>NICK: I was born before Cassini though, I’m not that 46 00:02:37.724 --> 00:02:40.360 young. >>SHANE: That’s true, at least there’s that. [laughter] 47 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:44.064 >>KATRINA: What was one really dramatic or exciting or 48 00:02:44.064 --> 00:02:47.501 memorable time from your time operating the CIRS instrument? 49 00:02:47.501 --> 00:02:50.704 >>DON: The most exciting times are the ones at 2 in the 50 00:02:50.704 --> 00:02:54.274 morning. I fortunately haven’t had to be up at 2 in the morning 51 00:02:54.274 --> 00:02:57.778 myself, but some of these people have, where some emergency 52 00:02:57.778 --> 00:03:00.847 occurs on the spacecraft and it has to be solved immediately. 53 00:03:00.847 --> 00:03:07.187 >>EVER: My son Wesley was born November 2010. And just two 54 00:03:07.187 --> 00:03:10.157 hours after he was born, there was an anomaly on the 55 00:03:10.157 --> 00:03:15.762 spacecraft. And it basically took about 15 days to recover 56 00:03:15.762 --> 00:03:20.000 from that anomaly. So everybody every time people ask me “what 57 00:03:20.000 --> 00:03:22.803 happened on that day?” I know exactly what happened because 58 00:03:22.803 --> 00:03:26.640 that’s when my son was born. I call it the Wesley Anomaly. 59 00:03:26.640 --> 00:03:30.844 [laughter] >>DON: But there’s a much larger picture. We’re 60 00:03:30.844 --> 00:03:34.514 operating the instrument, and we’ve been doing that for 20 61 00:03:34.514 --> 00:03:37.717 years, but before that the instrument had to be built, and 62 00:03:37.717 --> 00:03:39.853 it was built by an army of people here at Goddard and they 63 00:03:39.853 --> 00:03:43.390 were all very dedicated just like we are, and those people 64 00:03:43.390 --> 00:03:45.225 all had a very good time building the instrument. >>PAUL: 65 00:03:45.225 --> 00:03:49.596 We have a little mirror that scans back and forth inside the 66 00:03:49.596 --> 00:03:53.867 instrument. This little mirror moving one centimeter since 67 00:03:53.867 --> 00:03:58.905 2004. we’ve calculated that by the end of mission it will have 68 00:03:58.905 --> 00:04:05.312 run four marathons. And it has not failed. And the engineers at 69 00:04:05.312 --> 00:04:10.884 Goddard, they said it has an infinite lifetime. I kind of 70 00:04:10.884 --> 00:04:13.787 laughed, because you know what moving part has an infinite 71 00:04:13.787 --> 00:04:17.057 lifetime? Well, I guess we’ll never prove it because after 72 00:04:17.057 --> 00:04:20.894 twenty years it’s still working fine. But that just really 73 00:04:20.894 --> 00:04:23.897 amazes me the quality of Goddard engineering. >>KATRINA: What are 74 00:04:23.897 --> 00:04:27.534 you most proud of, with the CIRS instrument and how the team has 75 00:04:27.534 --> 00:04:31.771 operated over the years? >>NICO: It’s the best team. No it’s 76 00:04:31.771 --> 00:04:36.710 true. We have the most publications, the most data 77 00:04:36.710 --> 00:04:42.415 acquired, we have the highest quality of archived data, we 78 00:04:42.415 --> 00:04:46.353 have a flawless operation. >>SHANE: Cutest children. 79 00:04:46.353 --> 00:04:49.022 >>NICO: Cutest children. [laughter] >>KATRINA: What will 80 00:04:49.022 --> 00:04:52.759 that final moment be like when Cassini stops sending back data? 81 00:04:52.759 --> 00:04:57.297 >>DON: We’ll be waiting for that final signal, but Cassini will 82 00:04:57.297 --> 00:05:00.233 have already burned up an hour and a half earlier because it 83 00:05:00.233 --> 00:05:03.270 takes that long for light to get here from Saturn. It takes that 84 00:05:03.270 --> 00:05:06.873 long for the signal that was re-, the final signal to get 85 00:05:06.873 --> 00:05:10.443 back here to Earth. So Saturn will already have swallowed up 86 00:05:10.443 --> 00:05:14.681 Cassini a long time before we actually see that last signal. I 87 00:05:14.681 --> 00:05:16.917 think we’ll know that when we’re sitting there. >>CARRIE: We 88 00:05:16.917 --> 00:05:20.554 will, it’s sad. >>JOHN: I think it’s a little hard to anticipate 89 00:05:20.554 --> 00:05:24.491 people’s reactions. I mean it’s like a death in the family at a 90 00:05:24.491 --> 00:05:30.730 certain level. You know it’s coming and so on, but just how 91 00:05:30.730 --> 00:05:35.335 you react to the gut level, some people will be surprised. 92 00:05:35.335 --> 00:05:40.907 >>KATRINA: For you what will that moment be like when Cassini 93 00:05:40.907 --> 00:05:48.515 ends? >>MARCIA: Um, sad. >>TERRY: I worked on the Galileo 94 00:05:48.515 --> 00:05:55.622 mission just tangentially as a grad student, and this mission 95 00:05:55.622 --> 00:06:00.827 discovered just as much as Galileo did around Jupiter. And 96 00:06:00.827 --> 00:06:03.163 at the end, you’re left with more questions than you are 97 00:06:03.163 --> 00:06:07.267 answers. >>DON: There’s life after Cassini. >>KIMBERLY: I’m 98 00:06:07.267 --> 00:06:10.403 thinking even after this mission ends though, this group will be 99 00:06:10.403 --> 00:06:13.273 providing data to the research community for many years to 100 00:06:13.273 --> 00:06:16.676 come. So I’m sure folks will go back and analyze and re-analyze 101 00:06:16.676 --> 00:06:19.279 the data over and over again and new discoveries will probably 102 00:06:19.279 --> 00:06:22.182 continue to be found for a long time. >>KATRINA: Are there any 103 00:06:22.182 --> 00:06:25.919 other thoughts about Cassini and the CIRS instrument that you 104 00:06:25.919 --> 00:06:28.255 want to share on camera before we wrap up here? >>CARRIE: This 105 00:06:28.255 --> 00:06:31.791 is the group you can depend on. We all can depend on each other, 106 00:06:31.791 --> 00:06:33.760 no matter what. No matter how much time passed, three months 107 00:06:33.760 --> 00:06:36.696 go by and you could walk into someone’s office and they’re 108 00:06:36.696 --> 00:06:41.701 there for you. And that’s, that’s what I’ll remember, you know. 109 00:06:41.701 --> 00:00:00.000 [swoosh, beep beep, beep beep, beep beep]