Thread: Huygens probe.

All looking very good. Spacecraft survived for at least 2 hours on the surface, much longer then expected. Watching the live ESA webcast now, this is exciting stuff.

So the Cassini is transmitting ok?

Seems to be.

Originally Posted by nasa - cassini

01.14.05 (11:45 a.m. ET) - European Space Agency mission managers for the Huygens probe confirm that data of the probe's descent to Saturn's moon Titan are being received. The data was transmitted from the probe to NASA's Cassini spacecraft and then back to Earth.

Nasa's pic of the day is a cassini shot appetiser.
bbc: Huygens moon probe lands on Titan.

what was the expected time for its survival?

I had heard only a few minutes, but it sounds like it lasted almost 2 hours.

I think the batteries, which were fully charged, are good for up to seven hours.

There's nasa tv where a lot of questions seem to be getting asked but, with so little data currently returned, the answers all seem to be of the 'don't want to speculate' kind, which is understandable. But they all seem to be pretty happy (probe ~25C which is apparently due to 'great insulation - and German technology' rather than an indicator of surface conditions).

edit: Full data available after 7.40pm GMT....

> I think the batteries, which were fully charged, are good for up to seven hours.

Isn't the communication with Cassini line of sight, though? So when it turns back towards us to relay information, it doesn't matter if the Huygens probe is still recording or not?

Originally Posted by Ken Fitlike

I think the batteries, which were fully charged, are good for up to seven hours.

There's nasa tv where a lot of questions seem to be getting asked but, with so little data currently returned, the answers all seem to be of the 'don't want to speculate' kind, which is understandable. But they all seem to be pretty happy (probe ~25C which is apparently due to 'great insulation - and German technology' rather than an indicator of surface conditions).

edit: Full data available after 7.40pm GMT....

Isn't it past 7:40 GMT already? WHERE'S MY DATA?

>>Isn't the communication with Cassini line of sight...<<

That's true: once it drops beyond Titan's horizon then any data that Huygens might be transmitting wouldn't be received/relayed.

>>Isn't it past 7:40 GMT already? WHERE'S MY DATA?<<

I think the first images will be released ~10pm GMT - boffins have to count pixels and do other techy stuff and then an army of sweat shop workers have to colour them in with special crayons before we, the shallow minded public, get to see what all the fuss was about. There's sure to be a delay involved in converting from 21st century units of measurement (SI) to ancient stuff with funny names like 'Farenpounds'.

Yes, Cassini will have turned away from the lander, if it hadn't, it would have been below the horizon soon after anyway. The 2 craft were on parallel courses until the release, (naturally), and close to thereafter so Cassini would have passed below the horizon.

Huygens was designed to last for up to 30 minutes after landing. The science package was designed to do it's job and report within that time frame. The fact that the probe worked for 2+ hours on the surface does not mean that additional science could have been done.

The fact that the carrier was detected for a long period after the "mission" was completed says a lot about the engineering, and thus, information was being gathered until the probe went dark.

The real info, (some has already been intercepted remotely), will be the true treasure. ESA had said they hoped to have something ~21:00 my time, nothing yet, but that was only 26 minutes ago.

> The real info, (some has already been intercepted remotely), will be the true treasure.

Naturally, but people like me are more interested in pictures

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NASA has some images up already: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedi...m?categoryID=4

Looks like mars

Raw, unprocessed. It is the atmospheric data that is most important, then the surface physics/chemistry, then the pictures.

Obviously I was just kidding, but the pictures are all we have right now. Nothing wrong with raw pictures, is there?