In article . com,
dexx wrote:
Is it true that Huygens ceased transmission less than 2 hours after
touchdown?

Exact numbers aren't on hand, but that's generally right. Bear in mind
that Cassini went below Huygens's horizon around that time, so no further
data relaying was possible anyway.

The primary mission was complete three *minutes* after touchdown. Huygens
was mostly an atmosphere probe; the surface imaging and instruments were
an extra.

...it seems a great shame that the probe was so short
lived. I'm suprised the designers didnt make it rugged enough and
powered enough to survive several days.

It would have greatly increased the cost and complexity, unfortunately,
because it would almost certainly have required an RTG. Moreover, several
days is not enough -- it'll be a month or two (I forget exactly) before
Cassini goes past Titan again. You can't really do a long-lived Titan
surface mission without better communications support, that is, either a
Titan orbiter or a lander that's big enough and heavy enough to carry its
own high-power transmitter and steerable high-gain antenna (plus the power
source needed to run them).
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