It was a passion that never should have been. It started with one of Wernher von Brauns little toys that landed not far from my home in East London during the latter stages of WWII, with tragic consequences.

A decade or so later I had to do a presentation to the other kids in my class and I couldn't come up with anything else, it got me top marks. Most of my contemporaries wanted to be train drivers, I wanted to be the first man on the moon. When someone else beat me to it I realized, not for the last time, I'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time. There might have been a few other personal obstacles, but my frailties are too many and too boring to go into now (or ever).

Like millions of others I followed each achievement and catastrophe that came along been stunned by the images we have seen, particularly Saturn. But in practical terms Jupiter seemed to be a better place to set this story, Saturn has nothing like the Red Spot for a start.