After the gold rush

You have NO IDEA how long I have waited to use this title in this context.  Let me explain.  The word for Venus in Japanese is "kinsei," pronounced "keen say."  In the Kanji writing system, this is represented as 金生。 The Japanese word for "Friday" is "kinyoubi," pronounced "keen yo bee."  In Kanji, it is represented as 金曜日。 Those who know something of the Romance languages will notice the pattern; it holds for all seven days of the week and the "classical" planets in Japanese as well.  Now, the one additional fact here is that the days of the week were established a long time ago in the oriental lands.  But, they associated each with one of the seven natural elements (according to their ancient natural philosophy).  金 is the Kanji for "gold."  Hence, one way of saying it is that Venus is the "gold planet" (or, if you want to be pedantic, the "gold star").  Today -- for me at least, as a participating scientist about to return home for a time -- we are beyond the hustle and bustle of the orbit insertion of Akatsuki around Venus; we have moved past the rush to Venus; we are now ... after the gold rush ... with all apologies to Neil Young.

This is not to say things have calmed down.  The team are still working frantically to ensure that they can begin science operations before April.  They have very much work still to do to.  A process called "commissioning" the spacecraft, which involves adjusting the orbit to one that is conducive to achieving the science goals, running all of the instruments though a checkout procedure to ensure they are working properly (and fix any problems that may have arisen during the journey), calibrating the instruments so we know how much light each is receiving when we see an image, and testing the observation procedures that will be utilized in the coming years.  I spoke briefly with Takeshi Imamura, the Akatsuki Project Scientist, yesterday evening.  He apologized profusely for being unable to discuss science goals with me; but I understood that at that moment, I would be able to help best by offering again my congratulations and letting him do the work that he had to do right now.