Cassini Spirit

As Cassini plunged into Saturn's rings, capturing data until its very end on September 15, 2017, I remember in 1987, I graduated with an LLM from University College London with Space Law as one of my core subjects. The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space 1967 (Outer Space Treaty) was young. And Space Law was the farthest I could explore as an ordinary human on Earth.

We are made of stardust (ie atoms that have central nuclei with orbiting charges known as electrons) and our bodily atomic electrical charges repell each other, keeping our bodily matters to their right sizes without compressing them to their 0.01%. The movement of atoms within our bodies generates a magnetic field and the photonic, electro-magnetic force keeps us going. When our electronic signals move through our bodies along a series of bio-chemical wires known as neutrons, they fuel our brain power and physical actions.

I have been bewildered by my existence and identity on Earth, the Earth's existence in the Solar System, and the Universe's co-existence with other Universes just separated by a single quantum event. We, Earth, Solar System, Universe and other Universes, whether at the perceivable mass or electronic-photonic level, are not fixed at a point, but are moving with momentum to many places at the same time. I feel like living on Earth, and dream-living in other worlds before waking up and returning to the earthly reality again.

Looking at the unimaginable wider Solar System images captured by Cassini since 1997, I well appreciate that celestial bodies in Outer Space are there and will continue to be there under the laws of nature - without us. As rational beings, humans know how to create human law and order on Earth and in Outer Space. Despite our transient existence on Earth, I think our common mission, as Cassini's, is to capture and deliver value until the last possible moment!

#CassiniSpirit