Science and Space

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Huygens Probe, High Profile, Huge Payoff

On 14 January 2005 Huygens space probe has finally landed on Titan, ending a seven-year, 3.5 billion-kilometer voyage. As Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is enveloped in thick orange clouds past observations failed to reveal what is on the surface. To solve "Titanic" puzzle and to study Saturn NASA and the European and Italian space agencies have collaborated on the $3.3 billion Cassini/Huygens mission for two decades. After circling Saturn for more than 5 months Cassini mothership lets Huygens to seperate and descend to Titan’s surface.

The first haze-free glimpse of Titan’s surface, seen from 10 miles up, showed canyons and riverbeds in a wrinkled, hilly terrain, bordering what looked like a shoreline of a dark sea, possibly of liquid methane.

Huygens was designed to float in case it landed in a river or lake—but it didn’t. After descending by parachute for two and a half hours, the saucer-shaped probe landed in mud at a speed of 4.5 meters per second (10 mph), experiencing a brief jolting deceleration of 15 Gs. Huygens survived the impact and continued transmitting data for more than one hour revealing a smog-shrouded landscape of boulder-strewn plains, winding drainage channels, and dark pools that may contain liquid hydrocarbon.

Among the measurements sent back to Earth were air temperature, pressure, composition and wind speed sampled at points ranging from the top of Titan’s atmosphere to the ground. The temperature of the landing site itself was minus 291 degrees F. A "penetrometer" on the bottom of the probe poked into the ground. The soil, it found, has the consistency of wet sand or clay and is covered by a thin crust ... of something. Scientists are still analyzing all these data. There are enough photos, sounds and other measurements to keep researchers busy for years

The Cassini mothership will continue to study Saturn and its more than 30 moons from orbit until at least 2008.

posted by: kyawoo at 11:53 | link | comments (1) |
saturn, unmanned missions

Comments:

#1  18 January 2005 - 19:39

 

If I remember correctly, methane burns fairly clean. That'll be important if we can ever find a way to harvest it.

LibertyBob

Anonymous

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