- Cassini-Huygens Mission status report

Mike Flugennock said:
In article , "Matt J.
McCullar" wrote:

Thanks for posting the info! I saw a mockup of the Cassini probe last year
and it's a BIG probe.

The time I'm having following the MER missions had helped me pretty much
totally forget the time it was taking for Cassini to get to Saturn. I've
been following Cassini much more closely since the MER landings, as
orbital insertion date drew closer, but the thing that really drove me
nuts was seeing those beautiful full-frame color shots of Saturn that
looked like you could reach out and touch it -- and the craft was still
something like six months out.

I'm absolutely jumping out of my socks at the opportunity to check out
Saturn as closely as I've seen Jupiter -- and those Cassini Jupiter flyby
fotos had me licking my chops anticipating the close Saturn images -- and
thinking of the fotos Huygens will send back from Titan if all goes well
has got me almost totally unable to sit still.

Better than Jupiter. Cassini's instruments are quite a bit
newer than Gallileo's were, and Cassini has a functioning
high gain antenna. Some of the stuff that Gallileo was
supposed to do but didn't, much, we'll see for the first
time with Cassini. Some of the neater aspects of that
will be plenty of high-resolution movies of atmospheric
changes on Saturn and Titan.


Between the extended MER missions and Cassini, I can see I'm going to be
spending a lot of time "off-world" this summer.

Don't forget the X-Prize, the return of the Genesis Solar
Wind samples, and the launches of MESSENGER and Deep Impact
(to add to the launches of Hayabusa/Muses-C and Rosetta).

In article ,
(Christopher M. Jones) wrote:

Mike Flugennock said:
In article , "Matt J.
McCullar" wrote:

Thanks for posting the info! I saw a mockup of the Cassini probe
last year
and it's a BIG probe.

(massive self-snippage)

I'm absolutely jumping out of my socks at the opportunity to check out
Saturn as closely as I've seen Jupiter -- and those Cassini Jupiter flyby
fotos had me licking my chops anticipating the close Saturn images -- and
thinking of the fotos Huygens will send back from Titan if all goes well
has got me almost totally unable to sit still.

Better than Jupiter. Cassini's instruments are quite a bit
newer than Gallileo's were, and Cassini has a functioning
high gain antenna. Some of the stuff that Gallileo was
supposed to do but didn't, much, we'll see for the first
time with Cassini. Some of the neater aspects of that
will be plenty of high-resolution movies of atmospheric
changes on Saturn and Titan.

The thing I'm _really_ drooling over is the descent and surface images
expected from Huygens, not just from their scientific importance, but from
the sheer beauty of them. The views from the surface of another world
where Sol or Earth is _not_ the central feature -- I'm guessing
"Saturnset" will be the prettiest thing in the sky there -- is something
that's going to be really fascinating.


Between the extended MER missions and Cassini, I can see I'm going to be
spending a lot of time "off-world" this summer.

Don't forget the X-Prize...

Damn, that's right. Let's light this candle!

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

Mike Flugennock wrote:


The thing I'm _really_ drooling over is the descent and surface images
expected from Huygens, not just from their scientific importance, but from
the sheer beauty of them. The views from the surface of another world
where Sol or Earth is _not_ the central feature -- I'm guessing
"Saturnset" will be the prettiest thing in the sky there -- is something
that's going to be really fascinating.

Unfortunately, Huygens can't deliver this, even if it were possible. Battery
powered only, and it's signal is relayed from orbiter passing overhead very
quickly. We'll be lucky if it survives impact at all, and if it does we'll only
get an hour or two of life.

It's also likely to have the sky obscured by thick atmosphere anyway.

Hopefully, it will deliver a LOT of great sience on the way down,
even if it misses delivering the "eye candy".

Some are speculating a splashdown in a methane ocean. Surprisingly, it
actually sounds like Huygens would survive this! Now that would
be pretty cool.

"Everyone" wrote in message ...
Mike Flugennock wrote:
Some are speculating a splashdown in a methane ocean. Surprisingly, it
actually sounds like Huygens would survive this! Now that would
be pretty cool.

Would it float, even for a little while? Or if it doesn't, would it work
under the surface on its way to oblivion?

Mike Flugennock wrote:
In article ,
(Christopher M. Jones) wrote:
Better than Jupiter. Cassini's instruments are quite a bit
newer than Gallileo's were, and Cassini has a functioning
high gain antenna. Some of the stuff that Gallileo was
supposed to do but didn't, much, we'll see for the first
time with Cassini. Some of the neater aspects of that
will be plenty of high-resolution movies of atmospheric
changes on Saturn and Titan.

The thing I'm _really_ drooling over is the descent and surface images
expected from Huygens, not just from their scientific importance, but from
the sheer beauty of them. The views from the surface of another world
where Sol or Earth is _not_ the central feature -- I'm guessing
"Saturnset" will be the prettiest thing in the sky there -- is something
that's going to be really fascinating.

To date we have seen imagery from the surface or
within the atmosphere of three plantary bodies
which were not Earth (Moon, Mars, Venus).
Huygens will raise that number to 4, the Rosetta
Lander to 5, and Muses-C/Hayabusa to 6.

It's really a shame that a new Jupiter descent
probe is unlikely to fly in the near future. We
really could do with better data in that
department and we could especially do with better
imagery! I'd like to see a Jupiter balloon borne
atmospheric probe that could spend some time in
the atmosphere, and the same for Saturn, Uranus,
and Neptune as well.

On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 01:54:49 GMT, Everyone wrote:

Unfortunately, Huygens can't deliver this, even if it were possible. Battery
powered only, and it's signal is relayed from orbiter passing overhead very
quickly. We'll be lucky if it survives impact at all, and if it does we'll only
get an hour or two of life.

....Which begs the question: Does Huygens have a camera on board, or
did they simply not bother in this case?

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

Everyone wrote:
Mike Flugennock wrote:


The thing I'm _really_ drooling over is the descent and surface images
expected from Huygens, not just from their scientific importance, but from
the sheer beauty of them. The views from the surface of another world
where Sol or Earth is _not_ the central feature -- I'm guessing
"Saturnset" will be the prettiest thing in the sky there -- is something
that's going to be really fascinating.


Unfortunately, Huygens can't deliver this, even if it were possible. Battery
powered only, and it's signal is relayed from orbiter passing overhead very
quickly. We'll be lucky if it survives impact at all, and if it does we'll only
get an hour or two of life.

It's also likely to have the sky obscured by thick atmosphere anyway.

Hopefully, it will deliver a LOT of great sience on the way down,
even if it misses delivering the "eye candy".

Some are speculating a splashdown in a methane ocean. Surprisingly, it
actually sounds like Huygens would survive this! Now that would
be pretty cool.

The Huygens design includes the capability to float in a hydrocarbon ocean.

OM wrote:
On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 01:54:49 GMT, Everyone wrote:


Unfortunately, Huygens can't deliver this, even if it were possible. Battery
powered only, and it's signal is relayed from orbiter passing overhead very
quickly. We'll be lucky if it survives impact at all, and if it does we'll only
get an hour or two of life.


...Which begs the question: Does Huygens have a camera on board, or
did they simply not bother in this case?
It has two or three cameras (downlooking, sideways) and even has a small
floodlight to illuminate the landing are on the last meters to get a
good picture under the poor lighting conditions on Titan's surface.

In message , Christopher M. Jones
writes
Mike Flugennock wrote:
In article ,
(Christopher M. Jones) wrote:
Better than Jupiter. Cassini's instruments are quite a bit
newer than Gallileo's were, and Cassini has a functioning
high gain antenna. Some of the stuff that Gallileo was supposed to
do but didn't, much, we'll see for the first time with Cassini. Some
of the neater aspects of that will be plenty of high-resolution
movies of atmospheric changes on Saturn and Titan.
The thing I'm _really_ drooling over is the descent and surface
images
expected from Huygens, not just from their scientific importance, but from
the sheer beauty of them. The views from the surface of another world
where Sol or Earth is _not_ the central feature -- I'm guessing
"Saturnset" will be the prettiest thing in the sky there -- is something
that's going to be really fascinating.

To date we have seen imagery from the surface or
within the atmosphere of three plantary bodies
which were not Earth (Moon, Mars, Venus).
Huygens will raise that number to 4, the Rosetta
Lander to 5, and Muses-C/Hayabusa to 6.

I feel a need to add what Arthur Clarke called the prayer of the space
age - "if all goes well".
It's too bad (no, it's inexcusable) that the ESA Mercury lander has been
cancelled. Magnificent seven sounds good!
--
What have they got to hide? Release the full Beagle 2 report.
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 08:03:45 +0100, Jonathan Silverlight
wrote:

It's too bad (no, it's inexcusable) that the ESA Mercury lander has been
cancelled. Magnificent seven sounds good!

....Again, leave it to the Old World to prove it no longer has the
balls or the brains to be adventureous anymore. The cancellation of
that particular mission totally annihilated any amount of respect I
have for ESA and it's purseholders.

Idiots.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr