Titan - Saturn's Moon
With the IMAX film Hubble 3D blowing
the minds of humans across the globe right now, it seemed like the
perfect time to explore more of this great and vast space we call the
Universe.
But what about the forgotten heroes...
Where there is a will there is a way and, sometimes, good long-term
planning by humans can take us a long way. A long, long way - like two
billion miles (2.8 billion kilometres).
Sound impossible? Well it probably did when
scientists from Europe and America got together 25 years ago and
hatched a plan to visit Saturn and its moon Titan.
The ambition was unparalleled and the cost
of sending the washing-machine sized probe to Saturn was a whopping
$3billion.
However, in 1997 the Cassini-Huygens
spacecraft set off on its journey to the frozen surface of Titan, which
is bigger than Mercury and a little smaller than our nearer neighbour
Mars.
It is surrounded by a thick nitrogen-rich
atmosphere that scientists believe is very similar to what the Earth
had when it was forming, although there is no water on Titan as its
climate is freezing at -180 degrees Celcius.
The mission was for the NASA-backed
transport rocket Cassini to reach Saturn and then drop the Huygens
probe on to the surface of the moon.
It took off from Florida's Cape Canaveral on
a Titan 4B/Centaur rocket in October 1997.
To get the right amount of speed up to reach
Saturn, the 5500 kilogram Cassini-Huygens pairing had to complete four
gravity-assist manoeuvres - twice flying by Venus and by the Earth and
Jupiter once each.
Cassini-Huygens made history on 1 July 2004
when it became the first spacecraft to enter Saturn's orbit.
David Southwood, European Space Agency's
Director of Science Programmes said: "This was an amicable separation
after seven years of living together. Our thanks to our partners at
NASA for the lift."
What followed was an extremely tense 12
hours as the probe descended with its precious load of cameras - set to
snap off an amazing 1100 pictures - and data-processing equipment.
There were six instruments on board to
measure the physical and chemical make-up of Titan's atmosphere, which
is the solar system's only moon to have one, and examine its surface.
Three parachutes would deploy on the way
down in an attempt to slow the entry of the Huygens probe down from
1500km/h (1100mph) to the same speed you land at if you hop off a chair
- about five metres a second.
Having survived the fiery entry into Titan's
atmosphere the next worry for scientists was would Huygens land in
liquid - possibly an ocean of hydrocarbons - or on hard ground. They
were relieved when it proved to be the latter. Scientists believe an
analysis of Titan would be the same as looking at Earth 4 billion years
ago and will help in studying our planet's geological history.
After a long period of non-communication -
what seemed like a lifetime for waiting scientists was actually only a
few hours - Huygens began to upload information back to Earth. (It
takes 68 minutes from the time the messages are transmitted until they
are detected here.)
To say the waiting boffins were relieved
would be a massive understatement.
Check out these sites for some really
interesting images about one of mankind's greatest technological
achievements:
For more information about the
Cassini-Huygens mission visit this
link.
 Pictures
Sounds on the way down: click here.
Huygens' Site
Wallpapers
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