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Posted by: volcanopele Dec 25 2004, 09:36 PM

Huygens has been released and is now on its way to just west of Manhattan, Titan (my name). We should get images of Huygens tomorrow morning so be sure to check the raw images page. Don't get too excited though, Huygens should only be 11 pixels across. And if the MER heat shield is any test, it may be over exposed. (though the MER heat shield has mirror like surfaces).

Posted by: Sunspot Dec 25 2004, 11:20 PM

Great news on the Huygens release...and talking of RAW images, there haven't been many posted lately, is that because of preperations for the release of Huygens?

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Dec 26 2004, 12:22 AM

And here's the post-release shot of Huygens: http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1248

Certainly clear enough.

Posted by: CosmicRocker Dec 26 2004, 03:07 AM

I wonder if there is any significance to the fact that Huygens is not centered in that image.

There is a zoomed version also:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1250

...and it is indeed 11 pixels across.

Posted by: Sunspot Dec 26 2004, 01:26 PM

With numerous Earth based radio telescopes conducting experiments while listening to Huygens radio signal - will we know immediately whether the probe has succeded - or will we still have to wait for confirmation from Cassini?

Posted by: NorbertGiesinger Dec 26 2004, 03:32 PM

I think we may have some hint of sucess by VLBI. In a paper, I saw that the biggest telescopes (70m) have integration times of the order of 1 sec or less for a S/N of 0 dB or better (depends also on the weather !). I do not know how much number crunching is necessary. A most basic hint will be the stability of the carrier signal. A stable signal (or a certain pattern from rotation, changing doppler shift ...) will be a good sign.
I think we will hear something in this context from the ESA Huyghens staff in the coming weeks.

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Dec 27 2004, 01:35 PM

The fact that Huygens isn't centered in that frame probably doesn't mean much -- Cassini was actually supposed to take a 5 by 5 mosaic of frames to be sure to catch it in one of them. (24 of them are now available on the Cassini raw images page -- with the target officially labeled as "UNK", for "Unknown" -- and I haven't yet determined which of them the probe is actually visible in.) There is certainly no reason to think that it's seriously off the planned trajectory.

By the way, right after taking them, Cassini snapped its latest shot of Iapetus from about 1.1 million km out ( http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=29377 ). One thing that continues to amaze me about that moon is how irregular and far from spherical its limb is -- there are some BIG terrain features on it.

Posted by: Roby72 Dec 28 2004, 12:08 AM

New images of the probe are available:

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/raw/raw-images-details.cfm?feiImageID=29416

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1253

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/multimedia/images/image-details.cfm?imageID=1254

nicely resolved !

Robert Schulz

Posted by: CosmicRocker Dec 28 2004, 04:57 AM

I was happy to read the following in the caption to the second of those images:

"...This information so far shows that the probe and Cassini are right on the mark and well within the predicted trajectory accuracy. This information is important to help establish the required geometry between the probe and the orbiter for radio communications during the probe descent on January 14."

Posted by: BruceMoomaw Dec 31 2004, 07:00 AM

Today's Cassini Status Report says that its photos of Huygens confirm that it will enter Titan's atmosphere within 0.1 degree of the planned entry angle. Pretty good.

Posted by: Decepticon Jan 6 2005, 02:39 AM

Are the cameras aboard the huygens have the same filters as cassini?

I'm worried they will not see much because of the Haze.

Posted by: centsworth_II Jan 6 2005, 06:57 AM

The researchers expect (hope for) the haze to end about 43 miles above Titan's surface. Hopefully this is true and images of the surface below that point will be clear.

http://uanews.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/UANews.woa/4/wa/SRStoryDetails?ArticleID=10311

Posted by: slinted Jan 6 2005, 08:04 AM

Check out the DISR instrument description at http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/~aeibl/disr_spie_instrsum.html for more info about the light detection capabilities.

Posted by: alan Jan 6 2005, 06:14 PM

Any idea how long it will take the ESA to release the images from Huygens?

Posted by: DEChengst Jan 6 2005, 07:49 PM

On NASA TV:

January 14, Friday

5 p.m. - 6 p.m. - ESA Commentary and "Presentation of First Triplet Image of/data from Titan"

That's EST. So that would be 22:00 - 23:00 UTC.

Posted by: tedstryk Jan 8 2005, 01:55 PM

Is any protection in place to make sure that Cassini doesn't repeat what it did at Jupiter and safe itself during the Huygens mission? Maybe I am paranoid, but it really makes one nervous to know that should anything go wrong on the 14th, our one shot of landing on Titan for the next decade or two is gone. I will enjoy the Cassini mission a lot more when the Huygens data set is safely on the ground!

Posted by: djellison Jan 8 2005, 02:08 PM

Oh - theres a lot of coding gone into making sure that nothing goes wrong. They've gone about as robust as they can with the spacecraft to get the Huygens data back. You're right -it's VITAL.

Doug