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Huygens Wind Experiment Salvaged
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."
You are so right, NASA really do deserve all the credit for singlehandedly recovering the scientific data from this probe - go NASA.
Edit: Oops, after actually reading the article I now realise that JPL simply helped ESA pull together the signals from various telescopes all over the globe...but still woot for NASA and it's fighting Spirit - your lack of any failure ever shows how the USA is simply superior.
$2B OR NOT $2B = $FF
because, even for europeans, 'space' equals 'NASA'. I'll be the first on the barricades to bash your president and your international politics, but that does not degrade in any way the contributions your space agency has made to space exploration. Space exploration, in my space-uneducated head, is still mostly visualized by Armstrong on the moon, or Saturn rockets taking off. ESA has blasted a lot of stuff into orbit as well, but few of it is as breath taking as what NASA did, especially from a n00b point of view. So when I talk of 'NASA', I mean 'all kewl dudes that get to play with rockets, regardless of what nation, continent, agency or language they speak'. Space unites us all, man
When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
even for europeans, 'space' equals 'NASA'
Crap Russia have the best rockets, where the first with a man in space etc...
For the English, space means Russians, That 'idiot' from the Open University, and HOTOL.
And I suppose virgin now. N.A.S.A. is something of a joke.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.