[HQRP] Fw: [HASLIST] Cassini-Huygens

[Pete Abad]

A little off world news that might be of interest to you.

Pete    KD5ELH

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Paul Downing
To: NHAC, List ; List HAS ; FBAC, MailList
Sent: Saturday, December 25, 2004 3:46 AM
Subject: [HASLIST] Cassini-Huygens


FROM THE BBC WEBSITE THIS MORNING

Huygens probe unleashed on Titan

The Huygens probe has been released and is heading for Saturn's largest 
moon, Titan, scientists have confirmed.

A signal that the robot lab had separated from its mothership, Cassini, was 
received by the US space agency at its Jet Propulsion lab in Pasadena.

Huygens is now in a sleep mode and will take three weeks to reach the 
smog-shrouded satellite of Saturn.

When it enters Titan's atmosphere, the probe will have just a few hours to 
collect data before its batteries die.

This is the length of time the 2.7m-wide probe will be in view of Cassini, 
the relay station through which the data on the moon's environment will be 
sent back to Earth.
Mysterious patterns

Researchers will be delighted with any information the US-European robot can 
return on the thick nitrogen-rich "air" that surrounds Titan; but the 
jackpot prize will be to get pictures back from the surface.

Such is the chemistry and temperature (-180C) on Titan that scientists 
suspect it may harbour lakes, even great seas, of methane or ethane.

In which case, there is every possibility that Huygens will make a 
splashdown and take the very first extraterrestrial oceanographic 
measurements.
So far, all efforts to get detailed pictures of the moon's surface have been 
frustrated by a photochemical smog that hides the true nature of its 
landforms.

Even Cassini's remarkable instruments have struggled to get at the facts. 
Scientists can see dark and bright regions on the surface, but quite what 
they represent no-one is really sure.

"What we're looking at is just two-dimensional patterns," explained Dr 
Carolyn Porco, the Cassini imaging team leader.

"Some of us still think the black stuff may be the equivalent of an ocean, a 
solidified ocean or viscous material; but that is by no means a conclusion 
at this stage."
Nervous wait

Ground controllers received confirmation at 0324 GMT that the 319kg robot 
lab had ejected from Cassini.

The probe was released at a gentle, relative speed of 30cm/s and at a spin 
rate of seven revolutions per second, which will help stabilise the craft 
when it enters Titan's atmosphere.

That entry is scheduled to begin at just after 0900GMT on the 14 January - 
although it will be some hours later before scientists on Earth learn if the 
mission has been a success or a failure.


Paul Downing
Bradwell, UK
www.paulandliz.org