Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Dream

I had a dream last night featuring the Cassini spacecraft. (I know, I know...) In my dream, Cassini was making a very close flyby of the moon Enceladus. In particular, the spacecraft was sending back closeup video footage of the stripes featured in this image:

The spacecraft was so close that we could see through those stripes as if they were clear panes of ice. And behind those icy windows, we could see glorious swimming creatures, similar to large glowing golden jellies. Everyone was so excited - life outside of Earth! So beautiful! So graceful! I got on the phone to tell my mother. I was trying to explain to her what it was that I had seen. I was tearfully saying, "We're not alone! We're not alone!", when reality started filtering into the dream. Cassini has not done any such flyby. Its next flyby is of Rhea. It doesn't send back streaming video footage... this was all a dream. The sadness of that realization has been with me all day.

8 comments:

PHil. said...

With the cost of a private space launch, how much would it cost to launch an off the shelf camera, a high gain antenna, some attitude jets and a big cannon to fire it out there? Maybe put some solar sails on it....

Anonymous said...

Stupid reality, it should only interfere with non-cool dreams.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the next probe. Or maybe the cold jellies will lob a probe at us.

Jon Hansen said...

Awww.

Dr. Lisa said...

The prospect of the upcoming long weekend is helping me deal with being alone in the universe. ;)

Jon Hansen said...

Ah, maybe they're just being coy.

AaronJV said...

Although disappointing to you, your dream made me smile.

At least someone still dreams of outer space.

Dr. Lisa said...

Glad to make you smile, dude. I must admit, the happy parts of the dream were *very* happy.