Europe reaches new frontier – Huygens lands on Titan

[truthpusher]

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMQ1QQ3K3E_0.html

Europe reaches new frontier – Huygens lands on Titan

http://www.esa.int/images/huygens005_L,2.jpg

14 January 2005

ESA PR 03-2005. Today, after its seven-year journey through the Solar System on board the Cassini spacecraft, ESA’s Huygens probe has successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and safely landed on its surface.

The first scientific data arrived at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, this afternoon at 17:19 CET. Huygens is mankind’s first successful attempt to land a probe on another world in the outer Solar System. “This is a great achievement for Europe and its US partners in this ambitious international endeavour to explore the Saturnian system,” said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA’s Director General.

(snip)

A sequence of parachutes then slowed it down to less than 300 km per hour. At a height of about 160 km the probe’s scientific instruments were exposed to Titan’s atmosphere. At about 120 km, the main parachute was replaced by a smaller one to complete the descent, with an expected touchdown at 13:34 CET. Preliminary data indicate that the probe landed safely, likely on a solid surface.

The probe began transmitting data to Cassini four minutes into its descent and continued to transmit data after landing at least as long as Cassini was above Titan’s horizon. The certainty that Huygens was alive came already at 11:25 CET today, when the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, USA, picked up a faint but unmistakable radio signal from the probe. Radio telescopes on Earth continued to receive this signal well past the expected lifetime of Huygens.

more:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMQ1QQ3K3E_0.html

related links:

http://saturn.esa.int

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov

http://www.nasa.gov/cassini

[Liberal Veteran]

1. That's not Titan!

That's a snapshot of my backyard!

[Goldmund]

6. So you're from Utah?

[Xipe Totec]

2. So, do we congratulate the Old Europe, or the New One?

Rummy, any suggestions?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Hey and we have HIT Mars several times

Hey sorry seems I calculated things in feet instead of meters....

[janx]

20. I know. Those probes crashed and crashed. n/t

[On the Road]

4. Looks Like It Will Land on Solid Ground

Thanks for the link. Previous ones didn't have the pic.

[slutticus]

5. Here's one of the first images returned.

[DavidDvorkin]

7. Is that from ground

Or from some altitude?

I've been looking at news reports which include that image, and none of them specified the height at which it was taken.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

8. Here's the ground shot, (a bunch of rocks!)

[Xipe Totec]

14. Looks more like chunks of ice.

[pmbryant]

11. From 10 miles up according to NPR

At least this looks like the picture they were describing.

Very exciting stuff here!

Peter

[htuttle]

13. That one is from 16 kilometers up

[Mojambo]

9. This is an exciting day

Unfortunately, most of America is more concerned with the premiere of American "fucking" Idol.

I've decided that from now on, whenever I'm forced to say American Idol I'm going to add the "fucking."

So who's looking forward to American "fucking" Idol?

[arcane1]

10. sweet!

I wish Carl Sagan were alive to see this :evilfrown:

[yinkaafrica]

12. WOW!!!

[gp]

15. more images!!!

http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~kholso/jpeg/

[Jeebo]

16. One of my favorite science fiction novels...

...is "Titan" by Stephen Baxter. It's about a manned (and womanned) mission to Saturn's largest moon using souped-up space shuttles. And then right after the mission is launched, things politically start to go all to hell on Earth, sort of like what is happening now with the Bushies. And so the follow-up mission, the one that is supposed to follow them to the Saturn system and bring them back, never launches, and they're on their own.

I've probably read about a thousand science-fiction novels in my life. An average of one every two weeks, that's about 25 per year, in 40 years, that's about a thousand. So I feel that my opinion is worth something when I say that's one of the best ones I've ever read.

Ron

P.S. -- Thanks for the links.

[kostya]

18. And don't forget the Sirens of Titan (nor Poland!)

[Barrett808]

25. John Varley's "Titan" is also good n/t

[Mountainman]

17. Well another giant step for the "old" world

Soon they'll be calling us the old world.

[underthedome]

21. This was a joint project n/t

n/t

[janx]

19. This is so exciting!

Can't wait for more pics!

[janx]

22. Cable news isn't reporting ANYTHING about this.

They are going into the disaster du jour, as usual. NPR has been onto it since just before the landing.

[janx]

24. Husband says that now CNN has mentioned it--

Blitzer.

[janx]

23. Another descent shot:

http://www.esa.int/images/landing02_L2,0.jpg

from

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html

14 January 2005 This is one of the first raw images returned by the ESA Huygens probe during its successful descent.It was taken at an altitude of 8 kilometres with a resolution of 20 metres per pixel. It shows what could be the landing site, with shorelines and boundaries between raised ground and flooded plains.

[Moderator]

26. Duplicate

Please continue discussion here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1151147