artist. Then came an unexpected
surprise; meeting Carolyn Porco,
leader of the imaging science
team for the Cassini Mission; its
namesake probe currently in orbit
around Saturn and investigating the
Saturnian moons Enceladus and
Titan. As a young scientist she also
worked with another childhood
hero, Carl Sagan on the Voyager
missions. She was very keen to get
to know our little international army
who had travelled so far to come
to this event. So much so she even
tweeted about us!
Spacefest V: Day 1
The first proper full day on Friday
brought a series of highly informative
talks from scientists, astronomers
and Apollo alumni. A separate
dealer hall ran parallel to the talks
housing art memorabilia, books
and meteorites for sale as well as an
opportunity to meet the legends of
the Apollo era. Updates on Project
DAWN to asteroids Vesta and Ceres
and New Horizons to Pluto were
given by Marc Rayman and Leslie
Young respectively. Both were
highly informative and intriguing.
The legendary Sy Liebergot gave
the crowd an unparalleled view into
the inside workings of NASA Mission
Control in the 60s during Apollo’s
heyday and especially around the
mission he was most instrumental in
saving; Apollo XIII. As he succinctly
put it, it took eight years to make
the bomb that blew a hole in the
side of Apollo XIII’s service module
and almost cost the lives of three
good men. However it was, as we
all have seen, NASA’s finest hour.
Continuing the tour I finally met
two Moonwalking heroes from my
childhood, Dave Scott and Al Bean.
For Dave, commander of Apollo
XV, I had brought a very special
memento; a book of Captain Cook’s
Journals from his cottage in Fitzroy
Gardens, Melbourne Park Australia.
Cook was one of Dave Scott’s
key inspirations. Dave was visibly
touched by my gesture and we
immediately began talking about
Cook’s famous voyages rather than
his own missions. To say we hit it off
would be an understatement as we
continued to chat about Cook and
then his own lunar experiences at
dinner.
Al Bean: one of the nicest men
I have ever met, period. So warm
open and welcoming with a ready
smile, here was an Apollo XII and
Skylab III hero without borders or
brash ego. At lunch, he correctly
surmised that the experience
of walking on the Moon simply
enhanced the qualities that were
already in the men who went there.
Whether it was to run for Senate
(Jack Schmitt), actively pursue
plans for Mars (Buzz Aldrin), find
to survive and eventually excel and if we are lucky become closer
to who we truly are. The trick i s to
instil excellence and exactitude
in everything we do and have fun
doing it, just like Al Bean said.
The day was rounded off by a
remarkable and eminent teaming
up of Carolyn Porco and Professor
Brian Cox (British astrophysicist
and current king of BBC science
promotion). Both gave a detailed
talk on their respective fields and
neither dumbed down for this
crowd. Carolyn (as expected)
stunned us with the latest images
One SpaceFest attendee proudly shows off the autographs on his art print to a group
Image: SpaceFest
of other attendees.
renewed strength and meaning
in their religion (Charlie Duke) or
enhance an artist’s world (Al Bean
himself). Talking to him about his
painting experiences we were
all surprised at how he has never
looked again at the Moon while
painting it. It’s all from memory and
impressions. Exactness and the pride
in a painting well finished is his driver
and he could take 4-6 months over
perfecting one. To him, it is simply
a transfer of exacting rigour from
being a navy pilot, to a test pilot,
astronaut and now a painter. An
inspiring lesson we can apply to our
lives. We are never static, we adapt
and reinvent ourselves periodically
from Cassini’s exploration of the
Saturnian system. This is truly where
scientific observation comes into
play as Saturn is in many ways,
a micro solar system in itself, with
its proto planetary accretion disk
analogue (rings). However there is
one further thing Saturn provides;
beautiful grandeur. Having gazed
upon Voyager’s images as a child
and now the remarkable high
res Cassini photos as an adult, I
can safely say we truly have a
Wonder of the Solar System in our
“back garden”. Carolyn’s photos
of Titan and Enceladus wowed
the crowd, including some at the
time hitherto unpublished data
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