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Huygens Probe Lands on Titan
WillDraven writes "CNN, NASA and the ESA are reporting that the Huygens space probe has entered the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan after traveling 2.2 billion miles. Pictures from the moon's surface should be available sometime this afternoon" according to the NASA TV schedule. What we know so far is that Huygens landed successfully and sent at least the carrier signal from the surface to Cassini for 90+ minutes, more than expected, and that Cassini has successfully repointed at the Earth and begun relaying the data it received, beginning with test packets. Huygens now sits on Titan, silent forever, while we wait to see whether or how much valuable data Cassini obtained and can send back. Update: 01/14 17:20 GMT by M : So far: they report zero lost packets in the transmission, but one of the two independent data-collection systems is apparently giving some problems. Update: 01/14 21:40 GMT by J : The news is pretty much all good: a very successful mission. Expect to see many photos within hours, but for now apparently only three have been released. Ice blocks or rolling stones -- let the debates begin!
Straight from the JPL:
01000001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100010 01100001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101100 01101111 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01110101 01110011 00100001
all these worlds are yours, except Europa.
attempt no landings there.
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
Eventually, there will be net-connected satellites and probes: "You insensitive clod. By posting that link, you slashdotted the probe in Uranus."
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
How dare you smite down our righteous cause? We are about to start a campaign to have the sun shutdown, due to HARMFUL rays which it sends out into space and earth, and to have DI-HYDROGEN-MONOXIDE BANNED. Also, we feel that it would be a prudent move to restrict movement of butterflies in Papua New Guinea, as they might cause hurricanes.
Where's my plastic bubble?
Battery life. The probe, if I remember correctly, has five LiSO2 batteries that are its sole power source (along with some 1W radioactive heaters simply to maintain its temperature).
The trip to Titan took three weeks, and there was at least some electrical activity on the probe that whole time (I know it had a timer set to "wake it up" for the descent). Then the probe kicked into high gear for the descent, running all its systems off the batteries.
It was expected to go dead sooner than it did, but the lost data probably wouldn't have told us much -- after it had been sitting on the surface for a few minutes, it had probably already reported everything interesting.
The lost Huygens trasmissions:
Yep, still cold.
My batteries are getting kinda low.
Still cold. This rock is hurting my ass.
God damned this rock. It's poking right into my radiothermal heater.
Holy shit it's cold here.
Batteries about to give out. Hey, is anybody listening?
Heeeellllo, anybody there? Cassini? Can you hear me?
Great, I'm going to die with a fucking rock in my ass and nobody listening to me.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
Those guys cheer and clap at everything, though. For all we know, it could be that they're really excited about lunch.
I always like the "artists rendering" pictures they show, where it's these great chasms and rocks and stuff...i wish they would really take some artistic liberties and show little aliens coming out to greet the probe
Don't forget Poland!
Great, I'm going to die with a fucking rock in my ass and nobody listening to me.
Jim Morrison lived on Jupiter?
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
20km from the Dutch border the guy's name is pronounced hoy-gens (g as in good, not genetic). Us Germans are rude like that. We think that the Dutch pronunciation results from a problem with the respiratory tract. Except for that, we like the Dutch.
Huygens is not sitting on Titan silently. It's SCREAMING! Oh god it burns it burns! Muhahahaha.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Be sure to drink your Ovaltine.
"Ovaltine? A crummy commercial? Son of a b**ch!"
Somebody tell the natives to hide.
"I worked hard for it. I deserve it. And I have it," Campbell said. "It's all mine."
In Soviet Russia, Titan lands on Huygens.
I, for one, welcome our new Titanian overlords.
Wow! Imagine a Beowulf cluster of Huygenses!
Any transmission problems are clearly Micro$oft's fault. Damn Windows! The ESA should have used Linux!
Any transmission problems are clearly NASA's screw-up, forgetting to use the Metric system.
Let's see, what else have I forgotten...
...and then the transmission cuts off.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Plutonium has an atomic number of 94 and an atomic weight of 244. It is one of the most delicate elements in the periodic table. The only thing (up to now) that has saved it from becoming extinct is that it is difficult to locate.
The plutonium atom is so delicate that a fall (in Earth's gravity) of a distance of 10cm onto a hard surface will cause a plutonium atom to be broken into 3 iron atoms, one sulphur atom, and a number of neutrons. Plutonium is commonly found in the stink bombs that kids throw in the hallway at school.
set up a barrier around the Apollo 11 landing site
Oh, I'm sure there is a barrier around the "landing site" deep within a Hollywood movie studio. It's guarded by special troops and black helicopters, that's why nobody has ever seen it.
The lost Huygens trasmissions:
Funny, how just when you think life can't possibly get any worse it suddenly does.
Wearly I sit here, pain and misery my only companions.
I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
DI-HYDROGEN-MONOXIDE
I heard that it is the main ingredient of vomit and it makes you pee and sweat!
If you mod this up, your slashdot background will turn into a beautiful sunset!
damn, she's both good looking and a geek! i think i am in love ; )
Lawyers, MBA's, RIAA? A jedi fears not these things!
the first images and data is being received and processed by human minds
wavefunctions are collapsing across Titan
what if there are sentient beings that exist in uncollapsed clods of eigenstates???
NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
[We don't come from a planet. We come from a grid sector.]