The Shuttle Atlantis Seen In Silhouette During Solar Transit, May 12, 2009. Image By NASA/Thierry Legault.

S.2.186

instagram: @fesq.project

me: *is bored for 0.5 seconds*

me: i wanna learn how to work wood. i need to build a boat

This movie sequence of images is from the last dedicated observation of the Enceladus plume by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. Credit: NASA/JPL

Doug McLeod ‘Outbound’ (1988). From the book Visions of Space by David Hardy (1989)

Peripheral vision. Anna Lee Fisher prepares for the 14th mission in Space Shuttle history & the 2nd of Discovery, Nov 1984. Dr. Fisher spent 8 days in space during her career & also assisted in the development of the Canadarm & the design of spacesuits for women. Selected as an astronaut candidate in 1978, her other accomplishments include being a Doctor of Medicine & a Masters in Science graduate.

A man takes a picture from a rooftop as the Endeavour Space Shuttle makes its way toward the California Science Center on October 13, 2012.⠀ ⠀ Via Time and Photographer Rick Loomis-Pool

There's this sort of anthropomorphizing that inherently happens in language that really gets me sometimes. I'm still not over the terminology of "gravity assist," the technique where we launch satellites into the orbit of other planets so that we can build momentum via the astounding and literally astronomical strength of their gravitational forces, to "slingshot" them into the direction we need with a speed that we could never, ever, ever create ourselves. I mean, some of these slingshots easily get probes hurtling through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Wikipedia has a handy diagram of the Voyager 1 satellite doing such a thing.

"Gravity assist." "Slingshot." Of course, on a very basic and objective level, yes, we are taking advantage of forces generated by outside objects to specifically help in our goals. We're getting help from objects in the same way a river can power a mill. And of course we call it a "slingshot," because the motion is very similar (mentally at least; I can't be sure about the exact physics).

Plus, especially compared to the other sciences, the terminology for astrophysics is like, really straightforward. "Black hole?" Damn yeah it sure is. "Big bang?" It sure was. "Galactic cluster?" Buddy you're never gonna guess what this is. I think it's an effect of the fact that language is generally developed for life on earth and all the strange variances that happen on its surface, that applying it to something as alien and vast as space, general terms tend to suffice very well in a lot more places than, like... idk, botany.

But, like. "Gravity assist." I still can't get the notion out of my head that such language implies us receiving active help from our celestial neighbors. They come to our aid. We are working together. We are assisted. Jupiter and the other planets saw our little messengers coming from its pale blue molecular cousin, and we set up the physics just right, so that they could help us send them out to far stranger places than this, to tell us all about what they find out there.

We are assisted.

And there is no better way to illustrate my feelings on the matter than to just show you guys one of my favorite paintings, this 1973 NASA art by Rick Guidice to show the Pioneer probe doing this exact thing:

"... You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. ..."

Gravity assist.

For All Mankind (1.03 "Nixon's Women") Sonya Walger as Molly Cobb

We love you, Neil.