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Imagining Titan
Neil Halelamien writes "Recently the Planetary Society released the winning entries of their Huygens Art Contest. The contest challenged contestants to create artwork depicting what they imagine the ESA's Huygens probe will find when it descends to Titan's surface. 435 people from 35 countries entered the contest, and several of the winning images look like they would make great desktop backgrounds. The Huygens encounter with Titan is due for January 14 (Friday), but it looks like there isn't any live coverage planned of this exciting event."
titania
we'll get an actual image of Saturn rising over the horizon. It would grace the desktops of a million geeks.
What kind of cameras does Huygens have? What are the odds of an actual picture like that being taken?
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
Judging by the orientation of Saturn's rings, all of those images show the probe landing near one of Titan's poles. I thought it was going to land closer to the equator - in that case, Saturn's rings would be straight up and down.
Obscure Kurt Vonnegut reference
See my journal, I write things there
It's unfortunate there won't be any, but if they did have live coverage, it wouldn't be very impressive for all but the most hardcore geeks.
I remember watching the coverage from the Mars landings, and they're not that exciting. They might get some attention during the first few minutes, but by an hour into it when the most exciting thing you heard was, "Attitude adjustment in five minutes..." and then "Attitude adjustment green." after five minutes of silence, your audience is gone. I wonder if the people in the control room even get that excited, knowing that by the time they get busy, the cards have already been pretty much dealt an hour earlier, and there's not enough time to correct anything that goes wrong.
I'd rather read the summaries after the fact, myself. The information they collect doesn't say anything I can understand until after they've been processed, anyway.
The grand prize winner is home-schooled. Another demonstration of what getting out of the government prison camps can do.
Brava, Miss Tylor. And many thanks to the rest of the entrants, I have a couple new wallpapers!
Bob-
The Ludwig von Mises Institute. The reasoning individuals economics
Ummm..wrong... Try the Discovery Science channel on 1/14/05 @ 9pm EST
I don't like to compare computer modeled art to handmade, but the one that held my attention the most was Titan Sunset, which showed the sun behind Saturn's rings look out over a Titan shoreline. Totally unrealistic I know, but imagine if it actually were possible to look up in the morning and see Saturn hanging overhead with it's rings shining in the sunbeam's.
Hi, I'm the person who made the submission. Since making the submission, it's come to my attention that there will indeed be at least some sort of live coverage on NASA TV -- I suspect the article I linked to may be in error.
From the NASA TV schedule:
January 14, Friday
3 a.m. - 3:30 a.m. - Live Coverage and Commentary "Cassini Turns Towards Titan - Interruption of Radio Contact" - JPL/ESA
5 a.m. - 6 a.m. - Live Coverage and Commentary "The Huygens Probe Enters the Atmosphere of Titan" - JPL/ESA
7:30 a.m. - 8 a.m. - ESA News Briefing "Mission Status" - JPL/ESA
8:30 a.m. - 9:15 a.m. - ESA Commentary on Huygens Probe Mission - JPL/ESA (Mission Coverage)
10 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - ESA Commentary "Cassini Turns Back to Earth - Data Transmission Begins" - JPL/ESA
11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. - Huygens Probe News Briefing (will confirm if we are receiving data from Huygens via relay by Cassini)
1 p.m. - NASA Update with Sean O'Keefe - KSC
5 p.m. - 6 p.m. - ESA Commentary and "Presentation of First Triplet Image of/data from Titan" - JPL/ESA
[I just got this in my email]
Planetary Society Event:
Get Ready for a New Moon Landing!
Huygens Arrives at Titan, sponsored by The Planetary Society
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2005
Time: 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Description: Join The Planetary Society the night before Huygens' historic plunge into Titan's atmosphere for a look at that mission as well as a Voyager retrospective, a lively discussion of Saturn's place in the popular imagination, a Cassini overview and a live update from Huygens mission control in Germany.
Speakers:
* former JPL Director Ed Stone
* actor Robert Picardo, Star Trek Voyager [i.e. "The Doctor" from Voyager]
* Bill Nye the Science Guy
* Huygens engineer Shaun Standley
* Cassini Deputy Project Scientist Linda Spilker
* Planetary Society President Wes Huntress
* and more
Location: Pasadena Hilton, 150 S Los Robles, Pasadena, CA
Tickets: $10 for Students, $12 for Planetary Society Members and members of the Skeptics Society, and $15 General Admission. Tickets can be obtained at 626-793-5100, planetary.org/exploringtitan.html, or at the door.