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How to drop in on Titan
27 August 2003
| On 6 June 2003, scientists gathered at the Italian Space Agency's Trapani balloon-launch facility in Sicily. To launch the 500-kilogram gondola carrying the mock-up Huygens space probe, they used a helium balloon that fully inflated to a diameter of 100 metres at its maximum altitude. When the balloon reached a height of 33 kilometres, a release mechanism opened and dropped the probe.
Credits: ESA | |  |  | |
| | | | Descending through poisonous gas
| Huygens will be the first spacecraft to land on a world in the outer Solar System. In January 2005, it will land on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, and the only moon in the Solar System to possess a thick atmosphere. The Huygens data may offer clues about how life began on Earth. Huygens is currently in space, hitching a ride on NASA’s Cassini mission, which was launched by a Titan IVB/Centaur rocket on 15 October 1997. In an artist’s illustration, Huygens is here seen in the lower right corner while approaching the reddish/blue Titan moon below. Cassini is illustrated closer to Saturn.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | On 6 June 2003, scientists gathered at the Italian Space Agency's Trapani balloon-launch facility in Sicily. To launch the 500-kilogram gondola carrying the mock-up Huygens space probe, they used a helium balloon that fully inflated to a diameter of 100 metres at its maximum altitude. When the balloon reached a height of 33 kilometres, a release mechanism opened and dropped the probe.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
| | | | | On 6 June 2003, scientists gathered at the Italian Space Agency's Trapani balloon-launch facility in Sicily. To launch the 500-kilogram gondola carrying the mock-up Huygens space probe, they used a helium balloon that fully inflated to a diameter of 100 metres at its maximum altitude. When the balloon reached a height of 33 kilometres, a release mechanism opened and dropped the probe.
Credits: ESA | | | | |
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| | More about... Cassini-Huygens overviewRelated articles Landing on a cosmic icebergHeading for Saturn's mysterious moon: An interview with Jean-Pierre LebretonSplashing down on Titan's oceansRelated links NASA's "Where is Cassini-Huygens now?"
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