"richard schumacher" wrote in message news:no-spam-

I am a bit puzzled why they only made the probe last the few short
hours after it detached from cassini. They could of built a better
battery when Voyager I is like 28 year and still going. I know it is
like -300F and mechanical things won't operate long in that harsh
environment. Assuming the probe could survive the environment it would
of been nice to be able to tap it for everything possible.


The issue is how long the orbiter is in range to relay data from Huygens
to Earth. It's only a few hours, so a longer-life battery for Huygens
would have been pointless.

If that were the "only" reason then I would disagree. Cassini will be
passing by Titan again in a few weeks. I would think they could have held
data and then blasted it at the satellite each time it passed.

However, as I understand it that is not really why they kept the life to
only a few hours. I think it had more to do with just getting it down
safely, the weight of the probe on Cassini, cost, and probably just the
general expectation that conditions were not favorable to the life of the
unit being long.

Glenn