Saving Huygens

TazMainiac writes "This months IEEE Spectrum is running an article on how a Swedish scientist discovered that the Titan probe Cassini had a communications flaw that would cause it to lose all data sent back from the Huygens lander as it plunges into Titan's atmosphere. The problem - Doppler effect. The fix: go read the article."

Comments

Lots of amazing stuff

[erick99]

It is amazing that the problem with the reciever was detected. It was more amazing to read what they went through to document and present the problem. It also says something about the relationship between NASA and it's subcontractors when they can accept a receiver design and not sign a standard non-disclosure agreement so that they can see the specific design elements. If they had done so, they would have been able to see the problem before launch. However, having read the article, the complexity of the mission is such that I am possibly more amazed that more didn't go wrong.