Cassini-Huygens and the Titan Probe

**geebeeone** · 14-01-2005

If the touchdown is going to be shown live on BBC , who got there first to set up the camera?

***PoloMint*** · 14-01-2005

Touchdown pics already on the web:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/index.html

**DaDragon** · 14-01-2005

PoloMint,
Thanks for the thread,been watching all day on the ESA channel,can't wait for the colour pics!!.I bet in a few months time there will be a poster to hang on your bedroom wall and it will be one of the biggest selling posters ever!!
Regards DaDragon.

**Analoguesat** · 14-01-2005

So which space organisation is going to be the first to send a craft to probe Uranus .

Sorry couldnt resist it!

Arent the first pics from Titan fantastic!

I was stuck at work patching up ageing computers whilst my other half was watching the coverage

**Topper** · 15-01-2005

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

Arent the first pics from Titan fantastic!

I was stuck at work patching up ageing computers whilst my other half was watching the coverage

Yes they were fantastic and I too cannot wait until the colour pics are published, what colour is methane anyhow??? similar to meths or blue like paraffin??

BTW can relate to the patching up of ageing computers do it everyday I wish I could invent a way of installing Win98SE in my sleep.

***BGonaSTICK*** · 15-01-2005

Originally Posted by toppervte33h

I wish I could invent a way of installing Win98SE in my sleep.

Must be possible, some idiot wrote it in his...

**Analoguesat** · 15-01-2005

Originally Posted by toppervte33h

Yes they were fantastic and I too cannot wait until the colour pics are published, what colour is methane anyhow??? similar to meths or blue like paraffin??

BTW can relate to the patching up of ageing computers do it everyday I wish I could invent a way of installing Win98SE in my sleep.

Methane is clear - its what comes out of your gas pipes! (Its not smelly either - the stink has to be added for safety.)

For anyone with Sky only, ESA TV has turned up on 28E

12480 V 27500 2/3

ALthough you will have to ADD Channels

**Channel Hopper** · 15-01-2005

Im sure that the 'cleaning up' of the images received will give the surface of Titan an attractive edge.

At least the world can now look forward to a few more years of internal combustion engine use, we just need to make a rather large amount of piping.

(Wondering if the lander had a deployable flag on it - and what emblem it might have )

**Topper** · 15-01-2005

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

At least the world can now look forward to a few more years of internal combustion engine use, we just need to make a rather large amount of piping.

Very flexible piping at that

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

Methane is clear - its what comes out of your gas pipes! (Its not smelly either - the stink has to be added for safety.)

yes it is but only in the state as we know it, on Titan it is tristate as water is here so has anyone ever seen it as a liquid or indeed frozen solid?

**Analoguesat** · 16-01-2005

The first pics including the firstcolourised one are now up on the ESA web site

h**p://www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html

Sadly Cassini had a data channel failure, so some of the data may have been lost

I think Huygens itself is now dead - it was never meant to last more than a few hours and they got 7 hours life out of it. 7 years and 2 billion miles for 7 hours of life

***damhy*** · 16-01-2005

Originally Posted by Analoguesat

7 years and 2 billion miles for 7 hours of life

Stupid isn't it, they should have used duracells so that we got 6 times longer!

**Channel Hopper** · 16-01-2005

Originally Posted by damhy

Stupid isn't it, they should have used duracells so that we got 6 times longer!

With the amount of hydrocarbons in the atmosphere, they should have brought a tank of oxygen and two stroke generator (with electric start).

**Channel Hopper** · 21-01-2005

Just started, a presentation of the Titan probe results

Eutelsat W1 at 10 degrees East
Transponder B4, vertical, middle channel 2, F=11088.5 MHz, SR=5.632 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

Two audio channels: International sound and English interpretation

**DaDragon** · 21-01-2005

Think i've been watching the wrong channel,ESA on Astra,just a test card.!!Just saw ChannelHoppers post will go down and scan for it,it's probably over now!!!.Been sat there since 10 oclock this morning.What a dick i am!!!

Regards DaDragon.

**Analoguesat** · 21-01-2005

Theres a replay on 13E this afternoon:
Fri, Jan 21, 2005 | 15:00 - 15:15 GMT | 16:00 - 16:15 CET

Replay 1: Huygens on Titan - the Highlights
ESA TV Exchanges

Replay II: 22 January 12:15 -12:30 GMT

One week after the arrival of the Huygens probe at Titan, this Exchange provides a highlight edit of events 14-15 January 2005.

The images are at the same time pre-event coverage for the media briefing on 21 January at 11:00 hours, revealing more of Titan's secrets.

The script will be on-line as a PDF document under http://television.esa.int/photos/EbS37782.pdf

This ESA TV Exchanges feed is transmitted by the European Commission's "Europe by Satellite" (EbS) service. You can find the complete transmission schedule and download scripts and shot lists, also for ESA TV items, from the EbS Web site at http://europa.eu.int/comm/ebs/schedule.cfm

More backgroud information can be found on: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=35018

EUTELSAT HOT BIRD at 13° East (DVB/MPEG-2)
Horizontal, F=12,476 MHz (MCPC, Europe by Satellite)
SR=27,500 MS/sec, FEC=3/4

**DaDragon** · 21-01-2005

Analoguesat,
Cheers mate.
Regards DaDragon.

**Channel Hopper** · 21-01-2005

Whats been confirmed is Titan is just one big ball of liquid methane with some other hydrocarbons.

So whos up for a trip to get a few billion litres of free fuel ?

**DaDragon** · 25-01-2005

Seems a bit quiet lately,i've been waiting for some more colour pictures but nothing doing.Do you think the've found something a bit special?,and are keeping a lid on it.!!Looked on their web site(ESA) and it's just the same stuff.I'm not getting paroniod or anything,i know there's no little green men,(it's cold enough to freeze the b*ll*cks off a brass monkey)you would just expect a lot more action since it took 7 years to get there!!!!
Regards DaDragon

***damhy*** · 25-01-2005

Originally Posted by DaDragon

Seems a bit quiet lately,i've been waiting for some more colour pictures but nothing doing.Do you think the've found something a bit special?,and are keeping a lid on it.!!Looked on their web site(ESA) and it's just the same stuff.I'm not getting paroniod or anything,i know there's no little green men,(it's cold enough to freeze the b*ll*cks off a brass monkey)you would just expect a lot more action since it took 7 years to get there!!!!
Regards DaDragon

I agree, its a bit of a let down really, I was really excited in the weeks leading up to the landing and then what do we get a couple of crumby low res photos, but then thinking about digital cameras, they cant have been that good seven years ago, even now people still sell them for mobile phones with 320x240 resolution.

**Channel Hopper** · 26-01-2005

You forget that the final images are actully combined photos , and there are many of them.

http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/titanraw/index.htm

And as you say, its seven year old technology thats been fired from a rocket, got accelerated by the gravitational trajectory, spent rather a long time in cold space, suffered a lot of solar radiation, even more magnetic radiation effects, and finally flew through the rings of Saturn, to be decelerated in a swingby of some 15g, before plummeting down into a highly nasty atmosphere.

I think they did rather well

***damhy*** · 26-01-2005

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

I think they did rather well

I'm not denying the fact that they managed to get a probe on to titan is a great success, but I am just disappointed at the imagery coming back, I expected a lot more.

**DaDragon** · 26-01-2005

damhy,
I'm disappointed too,the pictures from the Viking landers had early seventies technology but the pictures of the martian landscpe were quite spectacular!!.Maybe they are saving the best till last!!
Regards DaDragon.

**Channel Hopper** · 26-01-2005

Getting to Mars was always easier than getting to a moon of Saturn. Vikings and their predecessors are all one hop landers, with transmitters able to get signals back to Earth. Thesun is strong enough there to recharge a battery system in just over twice the rate of this planet. Saturn doesnt have anywhere near as much tanning rays

Besides this is the secondary craft (dont forget Cassini was the main project, to go and find out about the whole Saturn system, not just one lump of rock) means Huygens was really on a tight budget weightwise. I believe more mass was in the transmitter equipment than the camera, data processing and batteries , just to get through the thick atmosphere (but dont quote me on that). Cassini is also flying about looking at other interesting lumps, as well as receiving those signals from the ground.

***damhy*** · 26-01-2005

Originally Posted by Channel Hopper

Getting to Mars was always easier than getting to a moon of Saturn.

Look its quite obvious that you are impressed by the efforts, I understand the complexities of completing such a mission and for what it was, it was a great success. But for the fact that they knew the misson was so big timewise, I personally (and it looks like I'm not alone - DaDragon) feel that what we got out of it at the end of the day was good but not amazing.

Maybe the project is a victim of its own success, the fact that it got there in one piece and working perfectly with such a low possibility of success makes it look like something that is relatively easy and therefore makes a few hundred low res black and white images seem like it was all a bit pointless.

If it had seemed more difficult and didnt pick up a signal to get some suspense, just getting a message back would have seemed like winning the lotto jackpot, but the fact that everything went according to plan, in my opinion means they should have made the most of the once in a lifetime trip.

Sorry to keep going on the same point, we have both made our point of views clear, and obviously its something that we can just go over and over again, and will never agree, but I need to keep typing cos the cold is making my fingers cease up.

**Analoguesat** · 26-01-2005

Originally Posted by damhy

I'm not denying the fact that they managed to get a probe on to titan is a great success, but I am just disappointed at the imagery coming back, I expected a lot more.

So did the scientists - one of the data relay channels on Cassini failed (possibly due to human error turning it off!) However, I think its a wonderful achievement getting any pics back from Titan - and some of the future pics from the Saturn system itself should be good too - especially once they have been processed and colourised by the tech bods.

The raw images are now here (37 pages!)

h**p//esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/titanraw/index.htm

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Cassini-Huygens and the Titan Probe For those of you with an appetite for the scientific and technical, whether it be lofty theory or more practical discussion.

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