On Fri, 14 Jan 2005 12:46:16 -0500, Johnson, Tracy
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I think it would be real cool if a huge tentacle came out and grabbed the
spacecraft.
>
>BT
>
>
>Tracy Johnson
>MSI Schaevitz Sensors
>
>

Tracy, seems like it landed safely.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?
tmpl=story&cid=514&e=1&u=/ap/20050114/ap_on_sc/europe_saturn_13

Space Probe Relays Data From Saturn's Moon

DARMSTADT, Germany - A European space probe has landed on the surface of
Saturn's moon Titan after a seven-year journey, a space official said
Friday, buoying hopes that the mission could shed light on the origins of
life on Earth.

Mission controllers were confident the Huygens probe made a soft landing by
parachute because it was transmitting steadily long after it was to have
landed, said David Southwood, the European Space Agency's science director.

"We know that it has landed based on the laws of gravity," Southwood
said. "It simply cannot still be flying. It's got to be on a solid surface,
and it must be soft."

Southwood later announced that the probe had relayed scientific data —
expected to include pictures and atmospheric measurements — to the Cassini
mother ship orbiting Saturn and the information had been transmitted back
to Earth.

Applause erupted at mission control in Darmstadt in western Germany at news
of the data transmission. The data are expected to shed light on what
Titan's atmosphere and surface are made of — and possibly on the origins of
life on Earth.

"The scientific data we are collecting now shall unveil the secrets of this
new world," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, ESA's general director. "This is a
fantastic success for Europe."

Friday's landing makes Titan the only moon other than Earth's to be
explored by spacecraft.

The heart of the mission was its 2 1/2-hour parachute descent, during which
it was to take pictures and sample the atmosphere, believed to resemble
that of the Earth when it was young.

Early signals confirmed it had powered up for entry and deployed the
parachute, and officials were confident it had made a safe landing because
Huygens was designed to go on transmitting from the surface for at least
three minutes before its batteries died — a total transmission of less than
three hours. But the signal had kept coming for more than five hours.

Mission officials — who have waited since 1997 for Huygens to reach its
destination — had tears in their eyes as the first signal was picked up,
indicating that the probe was transmitting to its mother ship, the
international Cassini spacecraft.

Huygens was spun off from Cassini on Dec. 24 to begin its free-fall toward
Titan, the first moon other than the Earth's to be explored by spacecraft.

Named after Titan's discoverer, the 17th century Dutch astronomer
Christiaan Huygens, the probe carries instruments to explore Titan's
atmosphere and find out whether it has the cold seas of liquid methane and
ethane that have been theorized by scientists.

Timers inside the 705-pound probe awakened it just before it entered
Titan's atmosphere. Huygens is shaped like a wok and covered with a heat
shield to survive the intense heat of entry.

On the way down, it was to shed its shield and use a special camera and
instruments to collect information on wind speeds and the makeup of Titan's
atmosphere. The data is transmitted back to Cassini for relay to NASA
(news - web sites)'s Deep Space Network in California and on to ESA
controllers in Darmstadt.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a significant
atmosphere. Rich in nitrogen and containing about 6 percent methane, its
atmosphere is believed to be 1 1/2 times thicker than Earth's.

Alphonso Diaz, science administrator for NASA, said Titan may offer hints
about the conditions under which life first arose on Earth.

"Titan is a time machine," Diaz said. "It will provide us the opportunity
to look at conditions that may well have existed on Earth in the beginning.
It may have preserved in a deep freeze many chemical compounds that set the
stage for life on Earth."

Part of a $3.3 billion international mission to study the Saturn system,
Huygens is also equipped with instruments to study Titan's surface upon
landing.

The Cassini-Huygens mission, a project of NASA, ESA and the Italian space
agency, was launched on Oct. 15, 1997, from Cape Canaveral, Fla., to study
Saturn, its spectacular rings and many moons.

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