Authorjulieclark - Authentic, Awkward Author. No Apologies.

Why we’re excited to engage audiences in new ways

Yes, I see in color. Several years back I learned not everyone can, and there are those who don’t really see any images in their minds. We all think and recall things differently. I think that’s pretty cool.

Some attach other senses to memory, such as associating words with flavor. In other words, if you are a fellow synesthete your senses are wired differently.

Synesthesia. I like to think of it as a super power.

it takes me 3-7 business days to process my feelings

Are you an accident prone writer? I know I am. 📝

Cassini Mission: What’s Next?

It’s Friday, Sept. 15 and our Cassini mission has officially come to a spectacular end. The final signal from the spacecraft was received here on Earth at 7:55 a.m. EDT after a fateful plunge into Saturn’s atmosphere.

After losing contact with Earth, the spacecraft burned up like a meteor, becoming part of the planet itself.

Although bittersweet, Cassini’s triumphant end is the culmination of a nearly 20-year mission that overflowed with discoveries.

But, what happens now?

Mission Team and Data

Now that the spacecraft is gone, most of the team’s engineers are migrating to other planetary missions, where they will continue to contribute to the work we’re doing to explore our solar system and beyond.

Mission scientists will keep working for the coming years to ensure that we fully understand all of the data acquired during the mission’s Grand Finale. They will carefully calibrate and study all of this data so that it can be entered into the Planetary Data System. From there, it will be accessible to future scientists for years to come.

Even beyond that, the science data will continue to be worked on for decades, possibly more, depending on the research grants that are acquired.

Other team members, some who have spent most of their career working on the Cassini mission, will use this as an opportunity to retire.

Future Missions

In revealing that Enceladus has essentially all the ingredients needed for life, the mission energized a pivot to the exploration of “ocean worlds” that has been sweeping planetary science over the past couple of decades.

Jupiter’s moon Europa has been a prime target for future exploration, and many lessons during Cassini’s mission are being applied in planning our Europa Clipper mission, planned for launch in the 2020s.

The mission will orbit the giant planet, Jupiter, using gravitational assists from large moons to maneuver the spacecraft into repeated close encounters, much as Cassini has used the gravity of Titan to continually shape the spacecraft’s course.

In addition, many engineers and scientists from Cassini are serving on the new Europa Clipper mission and helping to shape its science investigations. For example, several members of the Cassini Ion and Neutral Mass Spectrometer team are developing an extremely sensitive, next-generation version of their instrument for flight on Europa Clipper. What Cassini has learned about flying through the plume of material spraying from Enceladus will be invaluable to Europa Clipper, should plume activity be confirmed on Europa.

In the decades following Cassini, scientists hope to return to the Saturn system to follow up on the mission’s many discoveries. Mission concepts under consideration include robotic explorers to drift on the methane seas of Titan and fly through the Enceladus plume to collect and analyze samples for signs of biology.

Atmospheric probes to all four of the outer planets have long been a priority for the science community, and the most recent recommendations from a group of planetary scientists shows interest in sending such a mission to Saturn. By directly sampling Saturn’s upper atmosphere during its last orbits and final plunge, Cassini is laying the groundwork for an potential Saturn atmospheric probe.

A variety of potential mission concepts are discussed in a recently completed study — including orbiters, flybys and probes that would dive into Uranus’ atmosphere to study its composition. Future missions to the ice giants might explore those worlds using an approach similar to Cassini’s mission.

Learn more about the Cassini mission and its Grand Finale HERE.

Follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.

mood: i want to read a story exactly like one of my favorite stories i’ve read a thousand times but not THAT story because i’ve read it a thousand times and i want to read a new one but it should be exactly like this one.

I've noticed in different character-typing blogs that if a Ni-dom is a villain they will betuped INTJ. Why must all INFJs be nice, invisible and polite? Is this a stereotype?

Hi anon,

As phrased, this question is ‘when a villain is an Ni-dom, they always seem to be typed as an INTJ; why not an INFJ?’ However, it assumes the Ni-dom typing is accurate, and centers the INFJ in a very strange way, and the problem is more that probably most INTJ typings of villains are wrong in the first place; INFJs probably aren’t underrepresented as villains but rather INTJs are seriously over represented.

There is a character typing blog tendency to make villains INTJs regardless of actual type.This is mainly because of the erroneous assumption that only high Ni users make plans (so yes, a stereotype) and therefore the scheming villain always gets typed as a high Ni user.

There is also a belief that aux Fe is always sweetness and light when in fact high Fe is the best option for a mean girl type of villain, although a lot of those depictions are of Fe-doms and not auxes. I think this comes from the limitations of media; villains tend to be either the charismatic manipulator type (Fe-dom or occasionally aux Fi), the chaotic evil or mad scientist type (high Ne or Se), or the cold, commanding schemer (high Te, usually INTJ or ENTJ with STJ henchmen). An Fe-aux villain would probably be playing the long game and be good with things like whisper campaigns and slowly turning a community against someone, which works as a villain in longer form media (TV, novels) and especially as a mystery/thriller story vs. but is less likely to work well in your standard action/adventure movie with a more obvious, black-and-white morality sort of villain.

So: INFJs are not always quiet and polite, although in my opinion, their peak villainous state is actually outwardly very quiet and polite. Also probably at least half of INTJ-typed villains are actually a different high Te-type, and another quarter are various other types that people just slapped an INTJ type on because they don’t know what they’re doing.