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Huygens Wind Experiment Salvaged

Posted by timothy on 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."

6 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. For added amusement (per artist's pic)... by Faust7 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Replace every instance of "Huygens" in the article with "giant Rolo candy."

    Using a global network of radio telescopes, scientists have measured the speed of the winds faced by Huygens during its descent through the atmosphere of Titan.

    The very successful signal detection on Earth provided a surprising turnabout for the Cassini-Giant Rolo Candy Doppler Wind Experiment (DWE)...

    See? It's fun!

    --
    The coolest voice ever.
  2. Re:Things like that just amaze me... by lucabrasi999 · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    hat we have equipment sensitive enough to track a probe's position to within *1* km all the way out on Titan...saying it seems rather bland but when you think of how many millions of miles away it is, I think it's pretty remarkable.

    "Insert Off-Topic comment about not being able to find Osama Bin Laden here."

  3. Fir/st Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    world wiLl have

  4. Re:Things like that just amaze me... by Catbeller · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    "Insert Off-Topic comment about not being able to find Osama Bin Laden here."

    OKAY! After torturing over a thousand innocent men, women, and children, we've not found bin Laden. We also cannot find out where all the oil revenues from Iraq are going.

    Could it be that the reason we can't find "al Queda" is because there is no such thing? After you slaughter a few tens of thousands and torture a few thousand more, you have to Occam's Razor the damn problem. There ain't no answers because the question is wrong.

    Only because you asked. Must be a sensitive subject, the fake evidence for invading Iraq and all.

  5. Re:WE ARE ZOGG by Profane+MuthaFucka · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    The humans are weak. Blah blah blah. http://www.bitfurnace.com/TheCuddlyMenace/

    --
    Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
  6. Furthermore... by dillon_rinker · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    the resolution of the radio telescopes was good enough to track Huygen's position to within one kilometer

    ...the position tracking might not have been done if the world weren't so fired up about processing the data received by the radio telescopes. Sure, there might have been some grad student somewhere who would have analyzed the data sometime in the next couple of years and published the same results, but by then we would have OOH! SHINY!