The 5. On 1 July the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft entered the Saturnian system marking the start of its 4 year nominal mission. On 25 December , towards the end of the third orbit around Saturn, the Cassini orbiter jettisoned the Huygens probe for its 20 day journey to Titan.
On 14 January the Huygens probe successfully entered Titan's upper atmosphere and descended under parachute to the surface. The descent phase lasted around 2 hours 27 minutes with a further 1 hour 10 minutes on the surface. Throughout the mission data were collected from all instruments providing a detailed picture of Titan's atmosphere and surface. Cassini successfully completed its nominal mission in July after 75 orbits around Saturn and 44 targeted Titan flybys.
During this nominal mission, scientific observations were focused on Saturn, the icy satellites, the ring system, Titan and the magnetosphere. It was hoped that scientists would get a few minutes of data once the probe reached the surface, however it was not known if the probe would survive its impact and scientists did not know what kind of terrain it would land on.
Determining the surface of Titan. During the journey through the atmosphere, Huygens' instruments also investigated the surface of this moon. A camera took images and collected light to determine what elements, chemicals or minerals were present on the surface. Another instrument studied the Titan landscape to distinguish - before impact - whether the surface was liquid or solid.
Huygens was the first probe to land on a body in the outer Solar System and the furthest from Earth. On impact with the Titan surface an accelerometer measured how quickly the probe stopped moving. A suite of sensors then started to find out what it was like at the surface, measuring properties such as the temperature and how quickly sound and light waves travelled. More detailed information about the Huygens probe instruments can be found here.
Before the Huygens probe reached Titan scientists believed that the probe would encounter jet streams and currents that circulated the gases in the Titan atmosphere on its journey to the surface. Computer modelling of the atmosphere, based on the winds, revealed that it is like a giant conveyor belt circulating the wind from north to south and south to north.
Accelerometers measured forces in all three axes as the probe descended through the atmosphere. Since the aerodynamic properties of the probe were already known, it was possible to determine the density of Titan's atmosphere and detect wind gusts. Had the probe landed on a liquid surface, this instrument would have been able to measure the probe motion due to waves.
Temperature and pressure sensors also measured the thermal properties of the atmosphere. The Permittivity and Electromagnetic Wave Analyzer component measured the electron and ion i.
On the surface of Titan, the conductivity and permittivity i. Doppler Wind Experiment DWE : The intent of this experiment was to measure the wind speed during Huygens' descent through Titan's atmosphere by observing changes in the carrier frequency of the probe due to the Doppler effect. This measurement could not be done from space because of a configuration problem with one of Cassini's receivers. However, scientists were able to measure the speed of these winds using a global network of radio telescopes.
Huygens returned this small image from the surface of Titan. This colored view was processed to add reflection spectra data, and gives a better indication of the actual color of the surface. This page showcases our resources for those interested in learning more about Saturn and Titan. The major U. Air Force launch vehicle, and launch operations were managed by the 45th Space Wing.
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