Towards Saturn

The Heimdall left the grip of Jupiters jealous hand, accelerated by the close approach to her gravity well and ignited the drives to set course on the final leg of the momentous journey to Saturn. Tor Skarvald, Mission Commander, was first to leave the specially shielded hull section of the ship, to make his way to the command centre and check the ships systems fully. In order to make such a close pass to the Jovian magnetosphere and bathe in the deadly radiation emitted from the planet, the Heimdall was fitted with massive magnetic field generators and a special module at the centre of the ship, in which the crew could take refuge during the dangerous manoevre. The field generators shrouded the ship with a pulsing, glowing field which strobed brightly as it passed through the waves of radiation, reminding Skarvald of the aurora borealis on the cold winter evenings as a child in Norway. He had been specially chosen as mission commander due to his extensive study of Saturns moons and had been responsible for the development of several remote probes sent to the system prior to the manned mission. He was particularly interested in studying the Norse group, a part of Saturns known 63 satellites, named after Norse mythological figures. He often jokingly referred to the group of 29 moons as the most 'scientifically important', but usually only in the presence of his native american colleague Nascha Anishinaabe, who had been involved in naming and studying the Inuit group, which reflected eskimo mythology. The quiet and reserved astrogeologist would be among the first to actually land on the surface of some of the larger satellites and Tor held her expertise in this difficult field in utmost respect.
She had been responsible for planning the route through Saturns systems, along with astrogator Tori Varr, to ensure the moons with greatest scientific value were visited during the brief stay in the system. Now the excitement aboard the ship had become almost palpable as the six astronauts began the final checks of the equipment and the ship as they came ever nearer to the mysterious jewel of the Solar System and her eerie necklace of glowing satellites.