Mika McKinnon's discussions

You are the best, and one of the reasons it’s a joy to help out with Giz’s science section. Thank you for jumping in!

You know I can’t stay away! It’s just periodic visits, but it’s fun to be back poking around the comments section. 💚

Weather officer briefing during the pre-launch conference

Yup, the fog layer went to about 600ft, so even the low-ish coastal mountains are enough to poke over the top.

A ribbon cable connects the seismometer (& another the heat flow probe) to the lander providing power & data transfer. The “brains” are all in the lander, as is communications antenna.

Popping by to freelance only, not staff, but hi! It’s fun to be back! <3

You got it! Carl was explaining that while it had the size of an enormous moon like Titan, the density (& subsequent impact on the rings) was much, much smaller. That Peggy also has an unusual orbit means that ring-disturbance is highly variable.

I actually love that Cassini was so dedicated to helping us discover new science that it managed to keep streaming data longer than we expected. Whether it was Cassini managing a correction or the DSN overperforming beyond expectations I don’t know, but either way I’m so damn proud of that robot.

It was surreal watching the grief reactions kick in. Emily Lakdawalla got angry, wanting to go on a destructive rampage. For me, my strongest grief reaction is always to collect stories. I’m a physicist to the core — energy is neither created nor destroyed, it merely changes form. People live on in the stories we… Read more

I talked to him for 11 minutes and could write articles for days. He’s amazing — engaged, curious, and so positive and grounded. 10/10, would interview again.

Everything heavier than helium and aluminum will sink. By now, Cassini’s core of plutonium will be making a vigorous exploration of if there’s a surface anywhere under all those clouds. Read more

The collective gasp when we lost signal, then the disbelieving chant of “It’s back it’s back it’s back it’s still breathing!!!!” before losing signal again is going to stay with me for a long time. I get goosebumps every time I replay my video of those final moments.

It was Cassini. You knew I couldn’t stay away!

Heartbroken. I’m heartbroken! I was even in the great Snarbfest of 2014.

You know you miss me and my superfluous u’s providing solidarity.

Yup, the work email only exists when you’re actually working for a company. As far as I know, it’s now an untended inbox with no bounce-back message or auto-responder or anything. It’s too bad, because I’d gotten it set up for to collect tips that really should be getting passed on to the science team, but whatev, not… Read more

I left Gakwer on Feb 1, so am no longer writing for Gizmodo/io9. If you’d like to offer the photos to them, please email maddie.stone@gizmodo.com. However, I still love ‘em and would like to use them for a different project; if you’d like details you can email me at mika.mckinnon@gmail.com.

Well, sorta...

Father dearest doesn’t deserve the home-cultured honey, which is reserved for just Joan and Sherlock. Thus, trash the storebought crap once Morland is no longer welcome.

Ahahaha, that would be pretty great! “If only I’d tried to murder you, father. But I haven’t reached those sainted heights yet...” Read more