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Old December 26th, 2004 #1
-LiveWire-
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Default Space probe reaches the Saturn moon "Titan"

A European-designed space probe broke away from its NASA mothership on Friday on a plunge toward the mysterious Saturn moon Titan, starting a journey researchers hope will end with answers about one of the most puzzling bodies in the solar system. Ground controllers received a signal at about 7:24 p.m. Pacific time (10:24 p.m. EST) indicating that Huygens had separated from NASA's Saturn probe Cassini, as small explosives sheared away locking bolts and a set of springs gently pushed the probe off on a collision course with Titan.

"The only thing we have to do now is assess how it left," said Earl Maize, deputy program manager for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here, referring to the probe's trajectory and how it spins as it heads to Titan. Huygens will now "sleep" for the next three weeks, coasting in a suspended state toward Titan and waking just four hours before its arrival on Jan. 14. The European Space Agency-managed Huygens aims to shed light on the only moon in the solar system with an atmosphere, a place where the surface may not be solid and the truth, scientists say, is almost certainly stranger than fiction.......
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.j...toryID=7177787
 
Old January 15th, 2005 #2
Walter E. Kurtz
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Originally Posted by -LiveWire-
A European-designed space probe broke away from its NASA mothership on Friday on a plunge toward the mysterious Saturn moon Titan, starting a journey researchers hope will end with answers about one of the most puzzling bodies in the solar system. Ground controllers received a signal at about 7:24 p.m. Pacific time (10:24 p.m. EST) indicating that Huygens had separated from NASA's Saturn probe Cassini, as small explosives sheared away locking bolts and a set of springs gently pushed the probe off on a collision course with Titan.

"The only thing we have to do now is assess how it left," said Earl Maize, deputy program manager for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory here, referring to the probe's trajectory and how it spins as it heads to Titan. Huygens will now "sleep" for the next three weeks, coasting in a suspended state toward Titan and waking just four hours before its arrival on Jan. 14. ......
Kudos to the White Europeans who designed this successful mission. The Huygens probe has landed flawlessly and is already sending photos back to the ground controllers, who, BTW, are located in Germany (you know, where the "space program" actually started). Of course, many of these newstories conveniently omit the fact that the operations center is located in SS Officer Von Braun's heimat.
 
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