Katie Venit is the author of the new children's picture book Cassini's Mission: A Spacecraft, a Tiny Moon, and the Search for Life Beyond Earth. She also has written the picture book Forts. She lives in Wisconsin.
Q: What inspired you to write Cassini’s Mission?
A: I watched a Netflix show called 7 Days Out that covered the week before the end of the Cassini Mission as the team prepared for her planned crash into Saturn.
I learned about what Cassini discovered; it was so fascinating, she discovered all the ingredients for life as we know it on Enceladus, a tiny moon in the Saturn system that's covered in ice.
But what really hooked me was the emotion as the team said goodbye to Cassini after a very successful 20-year mission. I cried at the end of the show, then cried again when I watched it again. And that told me that this story was calling to me.
Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?
A: So much that Cassini discovered was surprising, but in researching I learned that there are so many other moons in the solar system that are also promising spots to look for life.
Only Enceladus--as far as I know--has been confirmed to have all the ingredients for life as we know it, but Europa is a very exciting moon to look at for life. Even Pluto might have a water ocean under its crust.
If we want to investigate the possibilities of life in our solar system, the best places to look aren't planets but moons.
Q: What do you think Julia Blattman’s illustrations add to the book?
A: Julia's illustrations are gorgeous. I've never seen anything like them. She really captured the emotion of the discoveries, and handled the crash of Cassini into Saturn so delicately so as not to be traumatizing for kid readers (but I can't promise adults won't cry--I still can't get through a reading!).
Q: The Publishers Weekly review of the book says, “It’s a courageous, steadfastly rendered journey that will help imaginations reach escape velocity.” What do you think of that description?
A: That was such a kind thing for them to write, it meant so much to me. I spent years researching and writing this book. It was so much work, and so much of writing involves being steadfast and courageous. Steadfast because it's a long process, and courageous because there's no guarantee at the end---you could spend years writing a book and still not sell it.
But also, I feel like those words apply to Cassini, as well, as much as you could say a robot has those human qualities. She did everything the team asked her to do, right up to the end.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I'm working on edits for a soon-to-be announced graphic novel, which is also about some space robots that make me cry. This is a fictionalized retelling of the mission, unlike Cassini’s Mission, which is nonfiction. I can't wait to share it.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: I hope kids read this book and take away that so much of scientific exploration is not knowing what we're going to find. We have to be agile and willing to pivot when evidence points us in a certain way, just like the Cassini team did when they discovered liquid water on Enceladus. We all have to be courageous, steadfast, and patient in science.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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