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Cassini Huygens Probe is Ready for Separation
Lucas.clemente writes "According to The Register, the Huygens probe has been given a clean bill of health and is ready for separation. The probe will enter the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan sometime around Christmas, and is expected to give us some of the most Alien landscape pictures ever taken."
As usual, the /. blurb has the facts wrong. From the article:
...
The Huygens probe will detach from Cassini on Christmas day, and drop into orbit around Titan, Saturn's biggest moon. On 15 January 2005 it will begin its descent into Titan's atmosphere
Or experience some kind of shattering 'Separation'. (I hope not)
There's something stunningly cool about pictures from 'other worlds' - amazing really. I do wish we would drop the 'financial' business sense, and just go in to space because we can. Does there even need to be a valid reason beyond 'why the hell not'
The thing that's sad to me is that for the amount of money we have sunk into the shuttles and various space stations, we could already have an entire fleet of robotic explorers throughout the solar system. As part of that, we'd have developed better propulsion systems, better navigation, stunning scenery, and a wealth of scientific results. If we were to follow such a course, we'd probably even have manned interplanetary voyages sooner than wasting our money on shipping people back and forth with dead-end technologies.
So, while I agree that exploration is good in its own right, we need to apply financial sense to the effort of exploration itself, and we aren't doing that as much as we should.
How in the hell do you pronounce Huygens? I'm guessing HEW-gens.
Cassini/Hugens is just amazingly cool; we have no idea what we are going to find on the surface. Whatever we find, it's going to change our view of the solar system. And the implications of finding any indication of life in that environment would be staggering.
Let's hope they didn't install the orientation sensor upside-down!
(this is a reference to that particle-collecting probe that came back to earth and smashed instead of opening its chutes)
Your dates are correct (I think), but Huygens will not "drop into orbit around" Titan. Instead, Huygens will dive directly into Titan's atmosphere, making a descent that is expected to last a couple of hours before it reaches the surface.
Entering a stable orbit around a single body such as Titan when arriving from afar costs fuel, something Huygens doesn't have very much of (if any at all). Cassini itself spent quite a bit of fuel to enter its orbit around Saturn on 1 July, and will spend more in January after dropping off Huygens simply to get back into the originally planned orbit (the initial phase was revised to cope with the Huygens-Cassini radio communication problem detected a few years ago). Many orbital changes will use gravity assists from Titan and other moons to conserve fuel.
I think we need to be supportive for the Cassini craft, in this time of great sadness. Nobody likes to see their only probe leave the nest so early, let's pray that little Huygens has a safe journey.
This may be a little late, but the Planetary Society is running an art contest, challenging contestants to create a piece of artwork (including the computer-generated sort) depicting what they think Titan will be like. Entries can be submitted online, and the deadline is this Sunday.
Here's the official text from the contest announcement:
What lies beneath the hazy atmosphere that envelops Saturn's moon, Titan? Is the surface of the moon dotted with seas of liquid ethane? Do icy crags stretch towards a dim orange sky where high noon is only as bright as 1/1000th the level of daylight on Earth? No one knows -- yet.
On January 14, 2005, The European Space Agency's probe Huygens will plummet through the atmosphere to give us our first detailed look at Titan. Before the probe breaks through the clouds to image this mysterious moon, we invite you to imagine what Huygens will find and enter The Planetary Society's art contest.
HOW TO ENTER:
Create an artwork representing what you imagine Titan looks like underneath its haze. Base your perspective on Huygens' journey. Are you viewing the planet from the air after Huygens breaks through the cloud or on the surface after the craft has parachuted to a landing? Did Huygens land on solid ground, or is she floating in an ethane sea? Send us your vision of what lies beneath the veil when you imagine Titan.
Once you've finished your artwork, you can enter the contest online--you don't have to mail your artwork in! Just create it on the computer, or take a digital photo or scan your artwork. If you are not able to enter the contest digitally, you can mail your artwork to us.
CONTEST QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Who can enter?
Anyone aged 10 and above may enter. You can enter as a Youth (aged 10-17) or Adult (18 and over).
What kind of art can I create?
You can use any medium to create your artwork, and then show it to us by submitting a digital image through the online entry form.
Or, if you choose, you can mail your art to us. If you mail your art, it cannot be larger than 1 by 11 by 17 inches (2.5 by 28 by 43 cm), and we will not return it to you. Send your entry to: Huygens Art Contest, The Planetary Society, 65 N Catalina Ave., Pasadena, CA 91106, USA. Click here for a donloadable entry form in PDF format.
When does the contest end?
Sunday, November 28, 2004 at 23:59 Pacific time.
What can I win?
Four First Prizes (two Youths, two Adults) and up to twenty Second Prizes will be awarded. A Grand Prize Winner will be chosen from among the First Prize Winners.
The Grand Prize is a trip to Darmstadt, Germany to be on site at ESA's Space Operations Centre for the descent of the Huygens probe!
All Winners' artworks will be displayed at ESA's European Space Operations Centre during the Huygens mission to Titan. All Winners will also receive a Planetary Society Prize Package including one year free Planetary Society membership, a Certificate of Honor, a Cassini-Huygens Mission Patch, an ESA poster, pin, and keychain, and a "Nine Planets" lithograph set.
Two Special Prizes (one Youth and one Adult) will also be awarded for that art most closely resembling any portion of the actual Titan panoramic landscape taken by the Huygens probe during its final stages of descent. These awards will be made within 30 days following the return of the actual Titan image data, and will each consist of a framed and autographed Huygens photo of the Titan landscape.
While it's true that this is a risky mission, it's a calculated risk. It's not like we could spend decades studying the surface of Titan in preparation for a landing, like Mars has been explored by telescope, when the cost of doing so would probably exceed that of the probe itself. We simply have few options besides waiting for improved technologies.
And, while the characteristics of Titan's surface are essentially unknown, the composition of the atmosphere is somewhat better understood, and Huygens is supposed to transmit data during its estimated two-hour descent. I hope that will include pictures of the surface as well (after the heat shield has been dropped). Whatever is transmitted after a successful landing will be an extra bonus, but it's not like the mission will be a complete failure if the probe drops dead on impact. The precise extent of Titan's atmosphere is probably not much of an issue; Skylab was orbiting Earth for years while Huygens will plunge directly into it in a matter of minutes, and I suppose the parachute and other mechanics are designed to react to actual descent speed of the probe, not to the timer started by Cassini three weeks earlier.
I know nothing of the physical testing this design has undergone, and I'm also curious about how the chemistry will affect Huygens' components. Still, those compounds aren't unknown on Earth, and chemical tests may very well have been performed.
You mention communication problems after landing, but one problem threatened to render the Huygens-Cassini radio link unusable if it hadn't been discovered in time to be circumvented (by changing Cassini's planned trajectory to reduce its speed relative to Titan during Huygens' descent). Let's hope there are no more such flaws waiting to be discovered, because now is probably a bit late to work around them.
Even if Huygens itself were to fail completely, Cassini will spend at least four years orbiting Saturn, and so far I find that just as exciting as waiting for January 15. Given the success of the Mars rovers, what says Cassini won't have learned a few more tricks before 2008 and have its mission extended a little?
Who will autograph that photo? Huygens himself?
On 15 January 2005 it will begin its descent into Titan's atmosphere, an event that might even be visible from Earth, provided you have a decent telescope, and are in the right place at the time.
Is this really possible? Considering this is all Hubble can make out of the whole moon, I find it hard to believe that the atmospheric entry could be bright enough to be seen from this far away. (The Cassini spacecraft itself is far far below the resolution of any Earth-based or orbital telecope)
Would be cool though if Cassini could photograph Huygens' descent, but I expect this will be precluded by the attitute necessary for proper radio communication.
"Studies have shown that people who eat peanuts live longer than those who do not eat."
Interesting story here about how it almost went disasterously wrong...
Grr! Arg!