The big news in science this week was the arrival of NASA's Cassini spacecraft at Saturn, and its transmission of the most close-up pictures ever taken of the planet's famous rings. Well, there happens to be a Star Trek connection to this event. A small DVD mounted on the Cassini orbiter circling the gas giant right now contains more than 600,000 digitized signatures from 81 countries which were collected almost a decade ago. The signatures include those of Patrick Stewart and the rest of the crew of "Star Trek: First Contact" — which was in production at the time the signatures were gathered in 1996 (Cassini was launched in 1997) — according to the Planetary Society.

The space activism group, which counts several Star Trek luminaries among its members and officers, helped make that public outreach effort a reality, but the man in charge was Charley Kohlhase, Cassini's mission design manager. In an interview posted on the society's site, Kohlhase explained that when he brought the idea to project manager Dick Spehalski of creating a signature-filled DVD to affix to the orbiter, "Spehalski basically said: 'Charley, make it so.'"

The latest news and images from Saturn can be found at planetary.org as well as Space.com and NASA.gov.

Conference Gives "Rise" to Space Elevator Concept

In the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Rise," Neelix and Tuvok took an eventful ride in a "mag-lev carriage" attached to an "orbital tether" designed to lift cargo from the surface of a planet to an orbital station. This was actually derived from a concept already common in science and science-fiction called the "space elevator," introduced in the 1950s by a Russian engineer and popularized by Arthur C. Clarke's 1979 novel "The Fountains of Paradise." The space elevator concept as science fact got a boost this week at the third annual international conference on the subject in Washington, D.C.

A space elevator, as currently conceived, would be a structure made up primarily of a super-strong ribbon — made of an advanced carbon nanotube composite material — that is three feet wide, thinner than a sheet of paper, and 62,000 miles long. One end would be attached to Earth at the equatorial Pacific Ocean, the other end to a counterweight in orbit, and the rotation of Earth would throw the counterweight outward, keeping the ribbon taut. A carriage would climb the ribbon to outer space with simple electric motors using drive treads to grip the ribbon.

Advocates of the space elevator believe such technology would significantly reduce the cost of lifting payloads (including people) into orbit and would be far safer than current methods of liftoff and re-entry, thus making space travel far cheaper and easier. Years of research are still required to make it a reality, but the notion is being taken seriously by NASA and other space and science organizations, as evidenced at this week's conference.

More on the topic can be found in this Space.com article. An animation illustrating the space elevator is available at this link. The episode "Rise," by the way, is part of the Voyager Season 3 DVD set which hits the streets next Tuesday.

Trek Stars Lend Voices to Planetarium Shows

In conjunction with the arrival of Cassini at its destination, a new show about Saturn narrated by John Billingsley ("Dr. Phlox") is currently playing at planetariums around the country. "Ring World: Mission to Saturn" follows the Cassini mission on its seven-year, 2 billion-mile journey to the mysterious world and its entourage of moons. Among the venues presenting the show are the Flandrau Science Center at the University of Arizona in Tucson; the Longway Planetarium in Flint, Michigan; the Kirkpatrick Planetarium at the Omniplex in Oklahoma City; and the Golden Pond Planetarium in Kentucky.

Other shows playing in some planetariums around the country are "Voyager Encounters" narrated by Patrick Stewart, about the two Voyager missions launched in 1977 which explored the outer planets, and "The Search for Life in the Universe: Are We Alone in the Universe?" narrated by Leonard Nimoy. Both are currently scheduled at the Bianchi Planetarium at California State University-Northridge in Los Angeles, among other places.