We have to adapt, we have to be agile to make
sure that we don’t put a $3 billion asset in harm’s way.
If you want to effect what’s coming up you need–
These flybys are planned out many, many months
and sometimes years in advance.
And so if something is discovered
and we can do something about it, we’ll stop at nothing,
well work literally day and night in order
to make these new observations that the scientists you
know desperately want to make happen.
NARRATOR: Pressure is building to rethink the route map.
Immediately, the scientists wanted to get much, much closer
to get high resolution imaging but also move the closest
approach from the northern hemisphere
to the southern hemisphere.
We finally arrived at a solution and we lowered
the altitude from 1,000 kilometers
all the way down to 165 kilometers.
NARRATOR: This pass is seven times
closer than the first flyby.
The discoveries are worth the diversion.
This was the fly by where we saw,
for the very first time, these fissures
in the south polar regions.
What was later named The Tiger Stripes.
NARRATOR: The stripes are gaping wounds
where pressure from below opens vents to the surface.
Their marked by whiter, fresher ice
solidifying along the cracks.
We saw about a dozen or more jets
erupting 200 or more kilometers above the surface
of the south pole.
We strongly suspected that these were geysers.
That this was vapor and particles
coming from these fractures.
NARRATOR: Nothing now is more important than Enceladus.
We wanted to go back again and again
to learn more and even fly through and taste what
was coming out of those jets.
NARRATOR: The scientists thirst for knowledge
can but up against the need for spacecraft safety.
And the guardian of that is Julie Webster.
JULIE WEBSTER: The engineering team is the 900 pound gorilla.
If we don’t think it’s safe, we win.
But you’re there to take science so if you don’t take the data
because you’re too scared you’re not going
to get what you’re there for.
BRENT BUFFINGTON: We had to learn a lot about this plume.
What was it made of?
How dense was it?
Was a variable in time?
Variable in geometry?
NARRATOR: To answer such questions,
Cassini dices with real danger.
BRENT BUFFINGTON: We’re talking about an object
that over a billion kilometers from Earth.
We went all the way down to 25 kilometers from the surface.
A very, very hard surface.
Going in excess of eight or 10 kilometers per second.
So we’re moving.
NARRATOR: The terrifying maneuver reveals
how active this moon is.
We found over 101 geysers and material
coming from the fractures.
And other teams found that the vapor contains
simple organic compounds.
Those geysers are coming from an ocean that is salty.
Comparable to the salinity of the Earth’s ocean
and it’s shooting in to space.
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