European Space Probe Makes Safe Titan Landing
28 minutes ago Top Stories - Reuters
By Ben Berkowitz and Gina Keating
PASADENA, Calif. (Reuters) - Europe's Huygens space probe landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, on Friday, sending back signals that it made a safe descent and its scientific experiments in the mysterious atmosphere had gone as planned.
Parachutes designed to smooth its approach deployed on time and Huygens survived on Titan's hostile surface for at least two hours after landing, surprising delighted scientists.
"We can say this afternoon we have ... a scientific success," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, director-general of the European Space Agency, in a press conference from its operations center in Germany monitored on NASA (news - web sites) TV.
The $3 billion Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint project of NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, to study Saturn, its rings, moons and magnetosphere.
In December, the Saturn explorer Cassini dropped off Huygens for a three-week journey toward Titan, culminating in the probe's parachute-assisted plunge to the moon's surface.
ESA officials said it appeared that Huygens landed on some sort of solid surface rather than in liquid.
Scientists said there had been problems retrieving data from one wind experiment but held out hopes they could get the information from a different study.
"Because of this, we can look in the sky and when we see Saturn we can say 'We've been there, we've left our mark,"' said Carolyn Porco, leader of the Cassini imaging science team. "I'm looking forward to another decade of exploration and this is only the beginning."
Cassini, which acted as the relay station for Huygens, sent back signals showing it had finished retrieving and had turned toward Earth to begin transmission of a likely three hours of data.
Given the sensitive nature of the mission, the Saturn orbiter Cassini recorded the data from Huygens on four systems.
The 705-pound probe made its two-hour descent through Titan's atmosphere to the surface after a seven-year journey piggybacked on Cassini and a final one-way trip of about three weeks on its own.
Scientists expect to spend years poring over the results.
"It's got to be unraveled, got to be put together and then scientists being scientists are going to argue about what it means as we piece together our place in the universe and how we came to be," said David Southwood, ESA's director of scientific programs.
MOON WITH ATMOSPHERE
Scientists believe the organic chemical reactions taking place on Titan resemble the processes that gave rise to life on Earth 4 billion years ago. Its atmosphere is mostly nitrogen, like Earth's, but its surface temperatures of about minus 292 F make it inhospitable to life.
The saucer-shaped probe was designed to rotate on its way down, taking high-definition, panoramic images of Titan's thick, smoggy atmosphere and its landscape.
Along with its six scientific instruments that measure the components of Titan's atmosphere, Huygens carries a sound recorder and a lamp to look for signs of surface liquid.
Titan, believed to be the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere, is larger than Mercury and Pluto.
It is believed to have liquid methane and ethane on its surface, but the moon's heavy fog blanket made it unclear what Huygens would encounter when it reached its landing site.
"Huygens is the most distant controlled descent and landing ever attempted in the solar system," said Simon Green, of the Open University, at a London news conference.
"It (Titan) is a great laboratory to go searching for the past history of what happened on Earth," he added.
Some science team members monitoring the flight have waited decades to see the first of 750 planned images and other scientific readings from the yellow-skied moon.
Huygens was named for the Dutch scientist who discovered Titan in 1655, NASA officials said. (Additional reporting by Patricia Reaney in London) |
