Huygens Wind Experiment Salvaged

Posted by timothy on Wednesday February 9, 2005 @07:53AM from the savaged-comes-later dept.

SeaDour writes "Earlier, it was reported that the data from a critical wind speed experiment onboard the Huygens probe to Titan was completely lost due to someone forgetting to turn on one of Cassini's communications channels. However, it now appears that ground-based radio telescopes from the National Radio Astronomy Observatory were able to record the transmission's many subtle doppler shifts and reconstruct that lost wind data. The winds altered the probe's horizontal rate of descent, thereby producing a change in the frequency of the signal received on Earth. Additionally, the resolution of the radio telescopes was good enough to track Huygen's position to within one kilometer, allowing for the creation of a three-dimensional model of Huygen's descent."

1 of 207 comments (clear)

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Re:Things like that just amaze me... by another_henry · 2005-02-09 08:04 · Score: 5, Informative

The original experiment using Cassini's onboard receivers would have had an accuracy of better than 1 m/sec and presumably similar positioning accuracy. Still, the probe accomplished a lot and was several different kinds of awesome.

--
"Studies have shown that people who eat peanuts live longer than those who do not eat."