Huygens makes successful landing on Saturn moon (Report)

thanks John.



John Steinberg wrote:

By Michael Coren

(CNN) -- The first image from the surface of Saturn's largest moon
Titan shows a rock-strewn plain stretching toward a distant horizon in
pictures released by NASA.

The only picture released by the ESA shows the moon, from high
altitude, with what appear to be drainage channels and a shoreline.

Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general for the European Space Agency,
declared the image "magnifique."

Scientists at ESA mission control stared in rapt attention, some crying
and applauding, as Titan was displayed on the screens.

For unknown reasons, NASA, which operates Cassini, the satellite
orbiting Saturn that relayed Huygens' signal, removed an image of
Titan's surface from its Web site. ESA had not released that image. No
official information was available about the image from Titan's
surface.

ESA's aerial image, a gray low-resolution picture, was snapped 16 km
above the surface of the moon. It resolves features, some as small as
40 m across, such as dark winding stream beds.

"The drainage channels are not like rivers on Earth, but maybe box
canyons with seepage ... flowing down to what looks very much like a
shoreline," said Martin Tomasko, lead scientist for the probe's only
optical instrument. "We predicted [this] ... but we've never been able
to see this with any clarity."

The geologic features were likely carved by a flowing liquid, but not
water. Liquid hydrocarbons, such as methane or ethane, are believed to
cover at least part of Titan's surface. Temperatures on the icy moon
hover around minus 292 degrees F (minus 180 C) and would immediately
freeze any liquid water.

Scientists said at least 350 more images were being processed and
better quality pictures were expected.

Huygens' first packet of data from Titan was successfully transmitted
this morning causing. Scientists at the European Space Agency's
operations center in Germany to erupt in applause.

"We are the first visitors to Titan and the scientific data we are
collecting now shall unveil the secrets of this new world," said
Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general for ESA, in Darmstadt, Germany.

He called it a fantastic success for Europe and the spirit of
international collaboration that brought together 19 nations, including
the United States for the Cassini-Huygens mission.

Huygens' batteries -- designed to last just a few minutes after
touchdown -- continued to power the probe's transmitter for more than
two hours after landing. The data is now streaming to Earth, via the
satellite Cassini, as a worldwide network of radio telescopes captures
it.

Eager scientists, some who have dedicated 25 years to the project, are
poring over the data, translating ones and zeros into images and
measurements of the moon's atmosphere. The first pictures of Titan's
surface will be released by ESA about 2:45 ET.

"This data is for posterity," said David Southwood, director of science
for ESA. "It's for mankind....Scientists are going to argue as we piece
together our place in the universe, of how we came to be. It's just the
beginning for our science teams."

Earlier in the day, radio telescopes confirmed the probe survived
reentry, successfully deployed its three parachutes and landed on the
moon's icy surface. Cassini received information until it passed beyond
the moon's horizon and out of contact. Now Cassini has turned toward
Earth and is sending the data to scientists.

They hope all the data will survive transmission uncorrupted, said Bob
Mitchell, program manager for the Cassini-Huygens mission at NASA.

Huygens reached the surface of Saturn's largest moon on Friday around
7:45 ET.

"We have a signal. We know that Huygens is alive meaning the dream is
alive," said Dordain of ESA. "This is already an engineering success
and we will see, later this afternoon, if this is a scientific
success."

The saucer-shaped probe has completed the final hours of its 2.2
billion-mile mission to Titan, an enormous moon larger than the planet
Pluto.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is an unprecedented $3.3-billion effort
between NASA, the European Space Agency, which designed the probe, and
Italy's space program to study Saturn and its 33 known moons. The two
vehicles were launched together from Florida in 1997.

"The mission is to explore the entire Saturnian system in considerably
greater detail than we have ever been able to do befo the
atmosphere, the internal structure, the satellites, the rings, the
magnetosphere," said Cassini program manager Bob Mitchell at NASA.

The Huygens probe, about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, spun silently
toward Titan after it detached from the Cassini spacecraft on December
24. Cassini will remain in orbit around Saturn until at least July
2008.

The mission "will probably help answer some of the big questions that
NASA has in general about origins and where we came from and where life
came from," Mitchell said.

Titan's atmosphere, a murky mix of nitrogen, methane and argon,
resembles Earth's more than 3.8 billion years ago. Scientists think the
moon may shed light on how life began.

Finding living organisms, however, is a remote possibility. "It is not
out of the question, but it is certainly not the first place I would
look," Hansen said. "It's really very cold." A lack of sunlight has put
Titan into a deep-freeze. Temperatures hover around minus 292 F (minus
180 C) making liquid water scarce and hindering chemical reactions
needed for organic life.

New discoveries

The mysteries of Saturn, the sixth planet from the sun, have always
enticed researchers. Scientists are perplexed why Saturn, a gas-giant
composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, releases more energy than it
absorbs from faint sunlight. Titan is also the only moon in the solar
system to retain a substantial atmosphere, one even thicker than
Earth's.

The 703-pound, battery-powered Huygens probe parachuted through Titan's
clouds of methane and nitrogen for two-and-a-half hours, sampling gases
and capturing panoramic pictures along the way.

Huygens hit the upper atmosphere 789 miles (1,270 km) above the moon at
a speed of about 13,700 mph (22,000 km/h). A series of three parachutes
slowed the craft to just 15 mph (24 km/h). Chutes and special
insulation protected Huygens from temperature swings and violent air
currents. Strong winds -- in excess of 311 mph (500 km/h) -- buffeted
the craft.

Its sensors deduced wind speed, atmospheric pressure and the
conductivity of Titan's air. Methane clouds and possibly hydrocarbon
rain was analyzed by an onboard gas chromatograph. A microphone
listened for thunder.

Three rotating cameras took panoramic views of the moon and a radar
altimeter mapped Titan's topography. A special lamp illuminated the
probe's landing spot to help determine the surface composition.

Cassini crossed Saturn's rings without mishap in June 2004 and produced
the most revealing photos yet of the rings and massive gas-giant. A
problem with the design of an antennae on Cassini almost scrapped
Huygens' mission, but engineers altered the spacecrafts' flight plans
to resolve the transmission problem.



Find this article he
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/space/0...tan/index.html





--
-John Steinberg
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