Cassini End of Mission events, Part 1 of ?

[nanila]

I flew into Los Angeles on the Sunday before the last-while-Cassini-is-still-in-orbit-around-Saturn Project Science Group meeting began. I was feeling dodgy when I got up at 6 AM, but I napped in the taxi and took some ibuprofen, and hoped that the feeling would go away.

It did not.

I made sure my usual mobile pharmacy (ibuprofen, paracetamol, Rennie) was stocked in my rucksack before I boarded the plane, and was glad I'd done so about three hours into the flight when my fever started spiking. I alternated ibuprofen and paracetamol every two hours. The flight attendants kindly granted all of my requests for cold water/cans of ginger ale, which were frequent. It was one of the most miserable long-haul flights I've ever had.

I spent nearly all of Monday in bed apart from a brief foray out to get a hot Thai curry into my belly for lunch. This paid off on Tuesday, and I was able to spend half a day at Caltech to dial into the penultimate operations meeting. (There will be one more after the crash, but obviously we’ll no longer have an instrument status to report.) I was excited about this, because I had been saving up something for a very long time.

At every operations meeting, the uplink operations manager goes through the list of instrument teams and asks them to report their status. Ideally, the exchange goes something like this:

Operations Manager: “[Instrument name], [Operations engineer name].”
Operations Engineer: “[Instrument name] is fine/nominal. We have no ground issues.”

No one deviates from this script if they can help it. It’s as concise as it can get.

At the penultimate meeting, however, there were a lot of extra speeches thanking everyone for a great mission, emphasising how much they’ll miss the spacecraft and one another, etc.

I had something else planned.

Operations Manager: “[Instrument name], [Nanila].”
Me: “Hello. I’ve been dying to say this for years. [Instrument name] is tickety-boo. We have no ground issues.”

I’m not sure anyone heard the last sentence because laughter exploded through the speakers.

Operations Manager: “Thanks, [Nanila]. I’m, ah, not sure how to spell that.”

After the ops meeting concluded, the room began to fill up for the science meeting. I kept hearing people saying “tickety boo”, and I felt a warm glow of satisfaction over having introduced a criminally underused phrase into the JPL lexicon.

I collected our (mine and emelbe’s) badges for the Grand Finale event on Friday. They are rather beautiful.


I was given an end-of-mission lanyard and pin, too.

For the first couple of hours of the meeting, there were camera crews present. I sat to one side near the front of the room, directly behind a cameraman, thinking this would keep me safe from view. It mostly worked.

Lots of people gave speeches: the project scientist, the mission manager, the head of JPL, the Italian space agency rep, the European Space Agency rep, and so on. Everyone said nice things and patted one another on the back.


Before the real science discussions got underway, the Cassini Virtual Singers (all current and former members of the flight team) performed four popular songs with lyrics rewritten to be about Cassini. It was sweeter than I’d expected.

After some Classified Science stuff happened, I went to lunch with some of the younger colleagues on our instrument team. One of them happened to be a member of the Athenaeum, which is the most pleasant dining experience to be had at Caltech, so we all agreed to go there. I remember it being very nice there indeed, and the lunch buffet did not disappoint.


Here are some of the reprobates respected colleagues.


Here are the others.


And here I am, ready to dive into my lunch.


The Athenaeum features ridiculously ornate ladies’ toilets. They have always made me want to sit down and spend an unnecessary amount of time powdering my nose and fiddling with my hair whilst chatting to a friend. Sadly, I was alone, so I made do with another selfie.

After a coffee - and what sweet pleasure to order a cappuccino and have it involve a big pile of foam with very little milk in the espresso; Britain, take note, you still have not got this right - I felt my energy levels suddenly drop below critical. The achiness left by the fever began to claw its way round the edges of the painkillers. It was time to head home and flop for the rest of the day.


Me, on the walk between my accommodation and the meeting. I have missed palm trees, my friends.


The reflecting pools below the towering edifice that is the Millikan Library in the middle of the Caltech campus.


I was delighted to find that the tortoises turtles are still by those pools, endlessly sunning themselves on the rocks (“Do you like my arabesque? Wait, no, I don’t care what you think. I am gorgeous, darling, gorgeous.”)

to be continued

Comments

[recessional]

HAH. I predict you have made the story that everyone will tell forever. TICKETY-BOO.

[nanila]

I just want them to keep using the phrase!

[st_aurafina]

I am so glad that things are tickety-boo!

[nanila]

Me too. May they remain tickety-boo through the very end.

[alatefeline]

SO BEAUTIFUL1 And so sadhappy, the ending of a good story of much sciencing! I hope you un-sick soon, you shiny person, you.

[nanila]

Thank you! The science-ing of Cassini data will continue long after both the mission and the project have ended, I'm sure.

I'm better today. Still had to lie down for a couple of hours after a half-day of activity, but definitely on the mend. :)

[lark_ascends]

That is just awesome.

I may be sharing that conversation at work tomorrow.

*bows to the awesome*

Wheee for your pass and your badge!

[nanila]

Yay! :D

(Sorry the timing on the Skype isn't going to work out. :()

[siliconshaman]

Permission to shamelessly steal that and incorporate into a sci-fi story I'm currently planning.

[you're right, that's a phrase that needs to be used more often!]

[nanila]

Please, spread the love of tickety-boo wherever you can!

[brainwane]

How wonderful.

[nanila]

Aw, thanks!

[weaverbird]

Tickety-boo! *falls over laughing* Yep, you will have a place in the folklore of JPL and Cassini for sure.

NPR did a piece on the end of mission last evening and interviewed someone on what I presume to be your team. I was all, "talk to Nanila! talk to Nanila!" but alas. :)

Thanks for giving us these updates. My Twitter is full of Cassini (and it's surprisingly emotional). Nice to have the insider view, too. Hope your health continues to improve. {{{hugs}}}

[nanila]

My ultimate goal would be to have "tickety-boo" become an acceptable substitute for "nominal".

Heh, no media will be talking to me this week. The flu has given me laryngitis and I sound like a barrel full of nails being dragged across a concrete floor.

Thank you! I'm getting better. Still quite weak, though.

[roarofsilence]

YAY. This is a nice post after your previous sad/sick one. I'm so glad you felt well enough to enjoy most of the day - gorgeous photos!

[nanila]

Thank you! Today was rather good, too. I went on a tour of JPL. I used to work there so it was both a trip down memory lane and a brand-new experience, since some of the buildings have been redone since I was there.

[davidgillon]

Hoping that you, too, are now tickety-boo

[davidgillon]

And definitely rocking the cog dress ;)

[redsixwing]

Tickety-boo!

Whatever your badge is on/above in the close-up photo is beautiful. I've been staring at the layers of trims for several minutes and admiring the color and texture combinations.

The badge itself is quite nice too. :)

[nanila]

Oh, that's my handbag! I say "my handbag" like it's the only one and it, um, sort of is. I've tried other handbags, but I always seem to go back to this one.

I bought it in a flea market in Amsterdam in 2005 for 17 euros. I have certainly gotten more than 17 euros' worth of use out of it. It fits way more stuff it in that it seems like it should, it's comfortable, it has an internal pocket that zips and even the main pocket zips although it looks like it's just a simple, pretty cloth bag. It is stealthily Really Useful. I love it.

[kaberett]

(Gosh but I miss the Caltech campus. Thank you for saying hello to the turtles.)

[nanila]

It is quite beautiful, the campus. I always manage to forget that, and then I go back and am pleasantly surprised.

It would be churlish not to greet the turtles, I feel!

[pax_athena]

All the feels about Cassini.

Also: your dress! And palms!

(Feel better soon <3)

[nanila]

SO MANY FEELS.

Thank you!

Today is better but after half a day of walking around JPL I have had to go and lie down for a couple of hours.

[sfred]

I hope you feel better soon.

[nanila]

Thank you! Am definitely on the mend, but conserving energy as much as possible.

[ursajoanna]

♥ ♥ ♥ to everything, especially tickety-boo!

[nanila]

Aw, thank you! I hope everything is tickety-boo with you.

[forests_of_fire]

Yay! I'm glad you felt well enough to take part in some of the Science Things. ♥ Feel completely better soon!

[nanila]

Me too, thank you!

I'm hopeful that by tomorrow I should be close to 100%. A half-day of walking around almost continuously today still necessitated an afternoon of lying down, so we'll see. I'm certainly not going to push it when I have to be at Caltech at 3 AM on Friday morning.

[lurkingcat]

Tickety-boo! That's brilliant :)

[nanila]

Thank you! I was happy it made an impression. :)

[silveradept]

Tickety-boo is an excellent status update, and I good that it lives on well past the mission conclusion.

The badges, pins, and that bathroom are all quite nicely ornate.

It's rather odd, but even though I know it's you in all of these pictures, the black and white one keeps trying to register as someone else.

The cog dress looks very SCIENCE!

[nanila]

The perspective on the black and white one is a bit weird because the mirror is warped. I agree that it makes me look like someone else!

The cog dress is the Engineer Dress from Svaha clothing. One day I would like to own allllll their dresses.

[ljravengirl]

Ah so much cool! ALL of this.
And yeah, I rarely hear tickety-boo. Good grief, sound it out! Easy to spell! lol
I LOVE YOUR DRESS! Duh.
It's so exciting to see this huge event through your eyes. I can't be more grateful to you for sharing so much here. *mwa*

[nanila]

Thank youuuuu for all of these comments! I like sharing here. I have more to share from today since I went on a tour of JPL. :)

[wohali]

I find it hard to find anything to say, I am in such awe of what this moment must be like for you.

Also, hooray for tickety-boo! :D

[nanila]

Exhausting, exhilarating, a little bit keeping-busy-and-in-denial-ing. And in less than fourteen hours, the mission will be over (although the project continues, and a feverish pace of scientific analysis).

Tickety-boo!

[paw_prints]

Awesome stuff Nanila. :)

Tickety-boo is a term I use hehe. Not often mind.

[nanila]

Thank you.

Oh, I'm so pleased to hear you use tickety-boo. And yes, it shouldn't be overused, I agree.

[mysterysquid]

Top job! :D

Hope you're feeling better for the big finale. Will be thinking of you!

[nanila]

Thank you!

Definitely feeling better, and will be going to bed very early since we have to get up at 3 AM.

[bryangb]

Looks more like a turtle than a tortoise. (-:

There's a UK microbrewery called Tickety-Brew, by the way.

[nanila]

Ack, I thought I'd fixed tortoise to turtle after kaberett pointed it out. It is fixed now!

That's a terribly clever name. Is the beer any good?

[pheloniusfriar]

So glad your body was efficient enough at fighting the invading viruses that you were able to participate, and hope you are tickety-boo for the finale.

[nanila]

Thank you! I don't think I'll have quite achieved tickety-boo by 3 AM tomorrow morning, but am certainly much better than I was on Monday.

[hilarita]

You can find palm trees in Bournemouth. And Cork. Though I'd rather visit Cork than Bournemouth. Also, nice turtle :)

[nanila]

I remember seeing palm trees in Cork! And in Cornwall. I'd happily go back to either. Never been to Bournemouth. :)