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Huygens Probe Prepares for Saturn Moon Landing
Nathan writes "A probe is about to land on one of Saturn's 35 moons, Titan. The probe is a collaboration with NASA, the European Space Agency and Italy's space program. The probe is apparently about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. This landing should lead scientists toward new information about the atmosphere and the magnetosphere."
from one folder on conglomerate in the NNED YOUR HELP! Would chhose to use Could save it isn't a lemonade
I'll say it- I have no faith in the ESA.
As much as people like to knock NASA, they have vast amounts of experience while the ESA talks a good line but can't deliver the goods. People on Slashdot tend to love the underdog while they rag non-stop on the guy on top. In this case, NASA gets ragged while the ESA is always viewed as "vastly superior".
Remember the Mars mission? Before Beagle "landed", I heard nonstop talk from European scientists that their mission had superior science to the American craft. It's always the same lines, revolving around the European view that they are smarter and more capable than Americans.
I don't expect this mission to be much different. While NASA's Cassini works flawlessly, the ESA's Huygens probe will deliver superior science just like Beagle. It, too, will fail.
Please don't mod me down for expressing my view. This is not a troll.
Your point is made in a prejudicial and inflammatory manner, so if it's modded down, that'll be why.
However, some of those prejudices do seem to be rooted in reality. The Italian contractor for the radio link between Huygens and Cassini screwed up the design -- badly -- and refused to release full specifications to the US engineers who discovered the problem. The Europeans evidently don't know what the term "team player" means. (And the Americans don't seem to know what "trust but verify" means.)
If this thing works at all, it will be despite of, and not because of, the technical contributions of the European partners.
I wish titan good luck, it's the looser in this deal, it's the one getting violated.
By this time tommarow we will be able to look at more junk tossed at a another thing in space, go us.
Anyone know if the VW beetle unit of measurement that NASA loves is a SI or English unit of measure?
you're a liar and a snotty elitist liar at that. If you "always thought it was a kuiper belt object" then you either never HEARD of Pluto before 1992 (when the Kuiper Belt was discovered), you somehow discovered the Kuiper belt before NASA did (in which case you're an idiot), or you just want to sound smart (in which case you're actually just an idiot). Or maybe you're trying to look "cool" - and even for slashdot, you look like a nerdy idiot (now that's hard to do).