Discussion: Huygens Descent Timeline

[Fraser]

SUMMARY: On Friday, January 14, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe will plunge through the atmosphere of Saturn's smog-enshrouded moon Titan. If all goes as planned, the spacecraft will have two hours to record everything it can about the moon's atmosphere before it meets an unknown fate on the surface - it could land with a splash, splat, or a smash. Huygens will reach Titan at 1013 UTC (5:15 am EST), and then deploy its parachute a few minutes after that. It will reach the surface by 1234 UTC (7:34 am EST), and data about the journey will arrive at Earth shortly after.

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[Moseley]

This is obviously the science story of the decade so far and I'm hanging on the news reports to see what they get back - a carrier signal has been received, dunno if any data on it yet. Fingers crossed it'll be a soft splashdown.

[Guest]

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=35129

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, USA, a part of the global network of radio telescopes involved in tracking the Huygens Titan probe, has detected the probe's 'carrier' (tone) signal.

The detection occurred between 11:20 and 11:25 CET, shortly after the probe began its parachute descent through Titan's atmosphere. The extremely feeble signal was first picked up by the Radio Science Receiver supplied by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. This signal is an important indication that the Huygens probe is 'alive'. However, it does not contain yet any substance; the latter is expected to come a few hours later via the Cassini spacecraft.
What the Green Bank radio telescope has detected is only a ‘carrier’ signal. It indicates that the back cover of Huygens must have been ejected, the main parachute must have been deployed and that the probe has begun to transmit, in other words, the probe is ‘alive’. This, however, still does not mean that any data have been acquired, nor that they have been received by Cassini. The carrier signal is sent continuously throughout the descent and as such does not contain any scientific data. It is similar to the tone signal heard in a telephone handset once the latter is picked up.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html