Cassini/Huygens

[LucyR]

Not long to go now:

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMD6E2VQUD_0.html

Here's hoping for the best.

 

[mbp]

So far so good. There must be some very nervous people sitting in those control rooms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4171945.stm

 

[scotth]

Huygens has now landed. according to the news.

Go Huygens, go! Lets see some beautiful data come streaming in!

 

[c0rbin]

www.cnn.com has a nice piece on it--animations as well.

Of course the official site is quite cool.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm

 

[Kopji]

On the edge of my seat today, I love this stuff.

 

[scotth]

I have the NASA channel (directv carries it on 376) being TIVO'd all day today.

 

[toddjh]

Don't get your hopes up. The Titanians don't want us seeing the battle fleet they are secretly massing.

Jeremy

 

[toddjh]

I just want to add that I'm totally in awe of the engineering and planning aspects of Huygens. Apart from being designed to survive a landing on just about any terrain, the thing was launched from Cassini by springs, with no possibility of course correction or reprogramming, and its parachute deployment and instrumentation were controlled completely by timer until it was already most of the way down. That's some pretty awesome precision, especially from almost a billion miles away.

Jeremy

 

[mbp]

That's some pretty awesome precision, especially from almost a billion miles away.

It's very impressive.
And yet if one tiny thing has gone wrong all those years of work will have been more or less wasted. I'm glad I'm not responsible for anything sent out there. I don't think I would have slept for the last year or so.

Also...
"Titans" sounds so much better than "Earthlings". Why did we give the cool name to someone else?

 

[FFed]

This is so exciting.
I remember when the probe was launched back in 97. I didn't think I could wait 8 years but here we are. woohoo.

http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/

 

[toddjh]

I remember when the probe was launched back in 97. I didn't think I could wait 8 years but here we are. woohoo.

Oi...you just gave me flashbacks to the paranoid eco-ranting about how the plutonium would kill us all.

Jeremy

 

[patnray]

Way to go NASA and ESO! According to the ESO website Cassini received data until it was beyond the horizon. Preliminary data suggests it landed on solid ground...

 

[FFed]

I was just watching NASA tv online and they said they should start getting pictures around 11:30 Pacific Time.

 

[mbp]

The webcast is available here:
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

 

[Silicon]

I was just watching NASA tv online and they said they should start getting pictures around 11:30 Pacific Time.

WOOO HOO, that's in 5 minutes!

 

[FFed]

still waiting. Supposedly they have no problems getting the data and are processing it now.
Should be any minute.

 

[mbp]

Someone should tell them that they're on the air.

 

[FFed]

One 16km high picture teaser for now.
CNN says the probe broadcasted for 2 hours which is better then expected so we should get lots of good photos. woohoo

 

[Silicon]

Other browser opened to ESA site....

clicking reload...reload....reload....

 

[mbp]

I know it's silly being impatient about a few hours or days after waiting for so many years. But I want more pictures and I want them now!