Cassini/Huygans update.

mike65

I realised I've been neglecting this forum when I heard the Huygens probe had been released from Cassini this morning. The probe is on a 3 week "drop"
to Titan where it'll have just a couple of hours to gather data before it runs of out battery life and "line of sight" comms with Cassini.

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEME4L3AR2E_0.html

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMVR53AR2E_0.html

Background

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/04/cassini/html/introduction.stm

mike65

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4134707.stm

The Cassini spacecraft is set to make a close pass of Saturn's moon Iapetus, a striking world of two halves.

One side of Iapetus' surface is as bright as snow, while the other is coated in a material as dark as tar.

At 0130GMT on 1 January, Cassini will swing by the frigid moon at a distance of 123,400km on its closest approach.

Some scientists think the dark material on Iapetus' surface came from space, while others believe it could have spewed out from the moon's interior...

...The dark coating is rich in organic (carbon-based) molecules and blankets the side of Iapetus that leads in the direction of orbital motion around Saturn (apart from the moon's poles).

It may have started off as a cloud of material ejected into space by an impact on an outer moon of Saturn. Over time, the orbiting dust could have moved inward towards the ringed planet.

Eventually, Iapetus flew through the cloud, which "painted" it on one side with the organic-rich material.

The other possibility is that the dark coating originated within Iapetus itself.

"It could have been extruded out on to the surface in a violent event or in some other way, we just don't know," Dr Porco explained.

"Volcanism can mean different things; it could be the fissure type we see in Iceland. But if eruptions are involved, it is going to be icy volcanism."

Scientists also want to know how the dark material came to have its particular shape and the boundary.

"It looks like the skin of a stitched baseball," the Cassini imaging team leader observed.

Mike.

mike65

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4171945.stm

The Huygens spacecraft is ready to make history as it heads for its rendezvous with Saturn's smog-shrouded moon Titan.

On 14 January, Huygens will dive through Titan's atmosphere taking images and readings on the way.

Its scientific investigation of this mysterious world could yield clues to how life first arose on Earth.

The robotic lab will hit Titan's atmosphere at 0907 GMT. If all goes well, it will be the furthest from Earth a spacecraft has been landed.

Ground controllers may get the first signal from Huygens as early as 1030 GMT, from sensitive radio telescopes which will be listening for the 319kg robotic lab.

"This will indicate the probe is alive and that it has entered Titan's atmosphere," Dr Jean-Pierre Lebreton, Huygens project scientist, told journalists at the European Space Operations Centre (Esoc) in Darmstadt, Germany.

Huygens has been coasting silently towards the exotic world for 20 days since being released from its mothership Cassini.

We should know if all went well by tomorow evening.

Mike.

ganam

'Stardate: Mission to Titan'
Fri 14 Jan, 11:30pm - 12:30am

BBC2

Capt'n Midnight

Live coverage from Mission Control in Germany of today's
attempt to land Europe's Huygens probe on Titan, one of
Saturn's moons, described as the most-earth linke object in
the solar system.

/me likes me FTV card with Autoview.

The Free Man

holy crap we could be seeing seas of methane tomorrow nite :eek:
EDIT: well, tonite actually!

XFM Studio

on standby with Nasa TV here: http://www.nasa.gov/ram/35037main_portal.ram according to the BBC website we should hear data back at 10:30 GMT?

hamster

Looking forward to this... finally 7 years later! We should get a signal back anytime soon saying all is ok. Hope it survives the descent! Looking at this through Celestia at the moment.

Sparks

I thought we weren't due to get data from Cassini until 1514 our time?

smoke.me.a.kipper

XFM Studio wrote:

on standby with Nasa TV here: http://www.nasa.gov/ram/35037main_portal.ram according to the BBC website we should hear data back at 10:30 GMT?

thanks for the link. now i can watch this in work.

Sparks

On NASA TV just now, ESA have said first Huygens data will be seen sometime after 1600 our time as they need to get the first two hours of Cassini's recording in first (Huygens wasn't transmitting for those two hours).

mike65

From bbc

The Huygens mission to Saturn's moon Titan is probably a success, space agency scientists have announced.

The spacecraft probe was transmitting data for over two hours as it plunged towards the moon's surface.

This data has not arrived on Earth yet, but the Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US, has detected its carrier signal - a sign it is working.

The probe's scientific investigation of this mysterious world could yield clues to how life first arose on Earth.

"I want to make sure that we don't miss the significance of seeing that signal," said Alphonso Diaz, associate administrator for science at the US space agency (Nasa).

"Probably one of the most difficult entry activities has just been accomplished successfully."

I like the inclusion of "probably"

Mike.

Sparks

Lots of cheering just now from the ESA staff in the control room, but now they're all back to being quiet and staring at screens...

Sparks

Announcement coming up from ESA...

Sparks

ESA's director-general has announced that it's a success and they're receiving the Huygens data from Cassini now. Huygens lasted for more than two hours on the surface of Titan, far outside it's design limit. First image expected later tonight.

mike65

Should be facinating assuming the images are at all clear (prolly need 6 months cleaning up)

Mike.

Astro1996

This is great news, cant wait to see some pics!

XFM Studio

just in.....Killiney beach on a bad day.

Capt'n Midnight

So no oceans of hydrocarbons then

Flukey

This is above the surface, about a 10 mile area. Some analysts are saying that could be a body of liquid on the right. The rest shows possibly where liquid may be flowing or it could be a rocky surface area.

Obo

Another shot.

XFM Studio

No...you can book your sea side villa in a Nitrogen rich athmosphere at -200C around 2090

hamster

That screenshot with the "stream channels" loooks amazing. Imagine streams of Methane...

GuanYin

mike65 wrote:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4134707.stm





Mike.

My god! Its full of tar.....

XFM Studio

Its actually quite hard to get tech info on how the whole system works, even on the ESA website.
What type of transmissions are used from the Lander pod itself? Are they UHF? Microwave would be out over such long distances?
What bit rate would the data streams be over such long distances?
Is the data encrypted? or FTA for any radio Telescope?
Why didnt they use the Cassini mothership as a relay and put more power time on the pod?

GuanYin

new composite images and sound on the ESA website

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

mike65

Its actually quite hard to get tech info on how the whole system works, even on the ESA website.
What type of transmissions are used from the Lander pod itself? Are they UHF? Microwave would be out over such long distances?
What bit rate would the data streams be over such long distances?
Is the data encrypted? or FTA for any radio Telescope?
Why didnt they use the Cassini mothership as a relay and put more power time on the pod?

Some info...

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/index.cfm?fobjectid=35026&fbodylongid=1632

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/subsystems-cassini.cfm

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/subsystems-huygens.cfm

Mike.

XFM Studio

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/ob...bodylongid=1632

excellent...thanks!

Flukey

It is a nice, fairly clear and mild night in Dublin. I was just out with my telescope looking at Saturn, which is always a wonderful sight. I could also just about see Titan.

chewy

i was listening to some news report about this a few days ago when somesaid it could have lakes of methane or other organic gases...

organic? i thought organic meant living....

sliabh

chewy wrote:

i was listening to some news report about this a few days ago when somesaid it could have lakes of methane or other organic gases...

organic? i thought organic meant living....

Organic here is as in "organic chemistry" which is a slightly misleading term for molecules that are largely based around carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen.

The name came from the observation that these are the building blocks for most biological chemistry. However it dosn't imply that there is necessarily life present.