Half Huygen's pictures lost

Andreas Parsch wrote:

While ESA's error with the Cassini-Huygens datalink is indeed very
embarrassing,

Does anyone have a link to a good (technical) description of the error?


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In article ,
rk wrote:

The oops associated with the probe and Doppler shift was well documented.
That too appeared to be a requirements error.

A requirements error? No; they were told that they had to accommodate a
Doppler shift, they just didn't realize that it applied to the sidebands
(where all the data are) as well as to the carrier.

Andreas Parsch wrote:



And weren't "you" also the guys who lost a perfectly good spacecraft
because of confusing two units of distance ;-)? (SCNR)


That's what happens when you give the responsibility for writing
guidance software to the lowest bidder.
Weren't you the guys who popped the Champagne on the first Ariane V's
_launch_, rather than waiting till it entered orbit? ;-)



While ESA's error with the Cassini-Huygens datalink is indeed very
embarrassing, I find the general attitude (and language[*]) of some of
the comments here a bit strange.


I think that the whole thing was a major success, even with only half
the photos getting back- the shots during the probe's parachute descent
are a unique thing to have (outside of Apollo LM descent shots) in
regards to a celestial body, and give a real feel for Titan's
topography. It was far more impressive than the information gathered by
Galileo's Jupiter probe.

Pat

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
It was far more impressive than the information gathered by Galileo's
Jupiter probe.

Isn't that partly because of a total absence of topography for that gaseous
planet?

Neil Gerace wrote:

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...


It was far more impressive than the information gathered by Galileo's
Jupiter probe.



Isn't that partly because of a total absence of topography for that gaseous
planet?



Pictures of the descent through the clouds would have been nice:
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/p...mages/ac6b.jpg
I was referring to how we didn't get much in the line of descent shots
on the lander probes to the Moon, Mars, and Venus.

Pat

In message
, Neil
Gerace writes
"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
It was far more impressive than the information gathered by Galileo's
Jupiter probe.

Isn't that partly because of a total absence of topography for that gaseous
planet?



More a question of bandwidth, I gather. I read somewhere that the total
data from the probe would fit on a floppy disk.
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In message , Pat Flannery
writes


Neil Gerace wrote:

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...

It was far more impressive than the information gathered by Galileo's
Jupiter probe.


Isn't that partly because of a total absence of topography for that
gaseous planet?

Pictures of the descent through the clouds would have been nice:
http://www.aviationnow.com/content/p...rt/images/ac6b.
jpg
I was referring to how we didn't get much in the line of descent shots
on the lander probes to the Moon, Mars, and Venus.

The first two Surveyors to the Moon had an approach camera but it wasn't
used! (Why not ?) And the most recent Mars probes did have cameras to
watch the descent. Could it be that until recently we haven't had the
technology to acquire worthwhile images during descent - lightweight
cameras to see and transmitters with the bandwidth to send decent
images?
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In article ,
Pat Flannery wrote:
I was referring to how we didn't get much in the line of descent shots
on the lander probes to the Moon, Mars, and Venus.

Surveyors 1 and 2 actually had a descent imager, but it was an unusable
leftover of earlier work -- the downlink during descent didn't have the
bandwidth for imaging.

Of course, there were a few descent shots from the Rangers. :-)

It is surprising that descent imaging didn't show up earlier in Mars
probes in particular, though. Even the MERs had it less for science than
because their landing system needed it -- their retrorockets, unlike the
ones on Mars Pathfinder, were somewhat steerable for wind compensation
(the airbag system, stretched to its limits by the heavier payload, needed
a near-vertical touchdown), so they used descent images for wind estimation.
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Jonathan Silverlight wrote:


The first two Surveyors to the Moon had an approach camera but it
wasn't used! (Why not ?) And the most recent Mars probes did have
cameras to watch the descent.


Wanna see the great descent shots from Opportunity and Spirit?
Here's Spirit: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...irit_e001.html
Here's Opportunity:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_e001.html
The ones from Titan are a bit more interesting. :-)

Could it be that until recently we haven't had the technology to
acquire worthwhile images during descent - lightweight cameras to see
and transmitters with the bandwidth to send decent images?


I was really surprised that the Galileo probe didn't have a camera on
it- even a single picture would have been fascinating; but it had to
withstand a very high G load during entry, and it may have been
difficult to design a camera that could withstand those stresses. On the
Pioneer Venus entry probes I assume they thought that any photos would
just show opaque clouds.

Pat

In message , Pat Flannery
writes


Jonathan Silverlight wrote:


The first two Surveyors to the Moon had an approach camera but it
wasn't used! (Why not ?) And the most recent Mars probes did have
cameras to watch the descent.


Wanna see the great descent shots from Opportunity and Spirit?
Here's Spirit: http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...irit_e001.html
Here's Opportunity:
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/galle...nity_e001.html
The ones from Titan are a bit more interesting. :-)

Odd. I'm sure I saw some more detailed ones in one of the Maestro
downloads.
But it just occurred to me that the picture that is _really_ missing is
the one of the other side of Huygens. Too bad they didn't install a
rear-view mirror.
"Clordelkus in the mirror may be closer than they appear"
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