Cassini/Huygens Mission Update Thread

[retro555]

Check out the new Titan image just released! Looks like methane and water ice next to a lake of ethane. Where the heck are all the craters? Cryo-volcanism for sure.<br /><br />http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/

 

[kaisern]

Hi folks,<br /><br />I'm completely new to this board, so please forgive my ignorance in advance.<br /><br />I've been fascinated with Titan for the past 20 years. I'm amazed by Huygens, but I have a few questions I was hoping someone could clear up. Again, I hope I don't sound too ignorant. I know what I'm about to ask will be controversial, and I don't want to offend anyone, but I'm going to ask anyway.<br /><br />First, why are the pictures of such poor quality? The resolution is awful and and the images are badly out of focus. Those pictures could easily just be blurry black and white pictures taken from an aircraft over earth. You really have to use your imagination to see anything. <br /><br />Second, why are all the pictures in black and white?! The probe was launched seven years ago, 1997, meaning it was constructed in the 90s when color digital imagery was a plain reality. This isn't the 1950s! How hard is it to take some true color photos?! The pictures from Opportunity are crystal clear--even the pictures from Viking back in the 70s look much better than the Huygens photos.<br /><br />Also that sound recording is completely unconvincing. It could easily be a recording of a desk fan on one of the scientists' desks!<br /><br />What's the deal? I understand there's a limit to how much data could be transmitted back, but you'd think that folks sending a probe halfway across the solar system--perhaps a once in a generation opportunity--would put a bit of priority on at least four or five in-focus, sharp, color images! <br /><br />I can't help but express some disappointment. That "color" photo released today is just the same out-of-focus, blurry black and white image they released yesterday with a simple orange filter over it--something anyone with Fireworks or Photoshop could have done.<br /><br />Is this possibly a fraud?

 

[aerogi]

If they'd choose to 'fraud', I'm sure they would have released much better quality pics! <br /><br />Altough I am also somewhat dissappointed by the quality, I am very excited about the whole thing. At least we got some pics from the surface! Something the Voyagers and Cassini can't do because of the smog! <br /><br />Sometimes I'm proud to be a human being, able to do such things!

 

[kaisern]

I'm proud of it, too, although I can't take credit for it--it wasn't my genius that accomplished it. But I am proud to be part of a race that CAN do these great things.

 

[silylene old]

from Reuters.......<br /><br /><i>One reading from an instrument protruding from the front of the saucer-shaped craft to gauge how deeply it penetrated upon impact suggested that the moon's surface was the consistency of wet sand or clay. </i> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[bobvanx]

Welcome to SDC!<br /><br />A fraud can be ruled out. Here, for more info on the instrument, where you'll find all your answers:<br /><br />http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/%7Ekholso/

 

[llivinglarge]

Can anyone confirm the authenticity of this image?<br /><br />http://img148.exs.cx/img148/1860/cananyoneconfirmthis4te.jpg

 

[wvbraun]

"Yes it is the last new worlds for a while, but I'm still looking forward to upcoming missions to find out more about Mercury, Venus and Mars."<br /><br />You forgot the New Horizons mission to Pluto and Charon. And I can't wait to see what lies beneath Europa's ice.

 

[shishka]

Kaisern,<br /><br />I have to admit: the landscape looked sooo familiar that I thought of the Earth myself, and the fanciful idea that this was INDEED Earth and all the conspiracy thoughts that go with it. But the thought was a fleeting one. Take this into consideration when thinking conspiracy -- its a probe built by ESA; although advanced, Huygens is nothing compared to what JPL puts into their hardware. ESA also told us up front that the pictures would be in black and white. Why only B&W? Perhaps they took the hardy approach to their construction. Huygens cost a mint the way it is, and color would not yield the science they sought. <br /><br />When the moment came for Huygens to set down, why go through all the fanfair for a spoof on the world? What would be the motive behind that? To cover the butts of ESA's past failures? Why invest all the time and money to create a story based on that? No...as much as I like a good conspiracy, I don't think this is one. Sorry.<br /><br />On a different subject, I see alot of folks here thinking they see standing liquid on the surface. I for one don't. That doesn't mean the soil structure is lacking any moisture, but I think from what we've seen of this area of Titan that we can all keep our surf boards at home. Very intriguing landscape nonetheless.

 

[serak_the_preparer]

Those are some great pictures.<br /><br />The latest incarnation of Rincon's BBC coverage (Titan probe yields fresh images), while not as impressive as what I've seen here, now has a nice shot taken during Huygens' descent.

 

[fangsheath]

In fact, your post reminds me to point out some things about this image, which was the first one I saw from Huygens´ descent.<br /><br />If you can find a piece of landscape on earth that looks like this, I would like to see it. Although much has been made of the dendritic networks, with good reason, even a cursory examination shows that this is a very strange surface. Notice that the drainage pattens do not seem to follow the slope patterns very well. Many of the ¨washes¨look as if they have been distorted and even partially obliterated by expansion and distortion of the underlying surface. I suspect that this is exactly what has happened. This is a very dynamic surface, and although much of it might be called ¨solid,¨my guess is that it is more like ice cream than earth in its physical properties. <br /><br />No, it ain´t a fraud. This is the real McCoy, and while it has some exciting resemblances to our own world, it is also every bit as bizarre and otherworldly as I expected.

 

[ianzxcvb]

kaisern<br /><br /><font color="yellow">First, why are the pictures of such poor quality?</font><br /><br />The camera is designed to shoot pictures catering for a wide range of altitudes and distances. Also the digital images from a nineties CCD, memory resources and digital transmitter have to be sent quickly and reliably over a billion miles using a shared battery with the charge duration of your average laptop. <br /><br /><font color="yellow">Second, why are all the pictures in black and white?! </font><br /><br />Colour images are a PR thing and really don't tell a lot bearing in mind the light spectrum on Titan will be entirely different to earth. (e.g. can you tell the colour of cars in street lights?). Instead there's also spectrometer that indicates the likely compositions of areas of view from which more meaningful colour images can be later compiled in conjunction with the black and white data.<br /><br />Having said that's a shame the thing isn't a rover with some kind of fuel cell that lasts for months. Probes designed to last a few hours seem like a lot of effort for limited information.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[llivinglarge]

Also keep this in mind... Why would the ESA make Huygens a rover if they weren't even sure Titan had a solid surface?

 

[ianzxcvb]

If it was a rover designed to last months - anyone know how the thing could be powered - don't think solar would be enough?<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[flynn]

<font color="blue">"Yes it is the last new worlds for a while, but I'm still looking forward to upcoming missions to find out more about Mercury, Venus and Mars." </font><br /><br /><font color="red">You forgot the New Horizons mission to Pluto and Charon. And I can't wait to see what lies beneath Europa's ice.</font><br /><br /><font color="blue">Quite right</font> <br /><br />*edit* - Check out the diary thread for more to look forward to in '05 and beyond. I'd also forgot about Mars express deploying the ground penetrating radar MARSIS in March/April until I just read it in Newscientist (Great Mars artical this week btw). <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[flynn]

There is only one choice really, Nuke. <br /><br />I guess the thing would have to be pretty big though. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#800080">"All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring" - <strong>Chuck Palahniuk</strong>.</font> </div>

 

[llivinglarge]

We should've nuked Mimas when we had the chance...

 

[chmee]

Mna, the images from Titan are great. We are must send another mission!!! Perhaps a nuclear powered rover not unlike the future MPL?<br /><br />Its funny how information like this just wets our appitite for more. Sure we may have answered many questions about Titan but we have raised many more! And thus scientific enquiry marches forth...

 

[chmee]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>If it was a rover designed to last months - anyone know how the thing could be powered - don't think solar would be enough? <p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> <br /><br />It would have to be powered the same way Cassini is: RTGs . In other words using nuclear material to generate electricity. The next Mars Rover (MPL) will use just such a technology.

 

[chmee]

It looks like the reason the second channel was not received (with the other 350 pictures) was that one of the receivers aboard Cassini was not commanded to turn on. <br /><br />The Huygens probe had 2 transmitters and Cassini has 2 receivers. Apparently, the instructions devleoped by the ESA for the encounter forgot to include the right code to turn on one of Cassini's receivers, thus the loss of data.<br /><br />Full story http://space.com/missionlaunches/huygens_update_050115.html <br /><br />Such a shame to go that far and spend all that effort and one tiny peice of code like that is overlooked!!

 

[meteo]

Don't know if this has been posted. 37 pages of Titan raw images.<br /><br />http://mars.lyle.org/titan/

 

[thalion]

Here's one I did--my very first spacecraft photo correlation. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> I used Photoshop and MS Paint; the lower image is one taken from 8 km that had me puzzled for a while, but I finally found its equivalent in the panoramic shot:<br /><br />ftp://members.aol.com/dosidicus/Huygensdescent.jpg

 

[captainjacksparrow]

I think it's just fantastic we even know what's down there now. <br /><br />Imagine if Hyugens had been lost without a trace, burned up or smashed up or whatever. We all may have ended up wondering what was down there on Titan till our death beds! <br /><br />But now we know, and as we read this forum Hyugens is still there, sitting on Titan, walking distance from all those fascinating landscape features. Wow.

 

[serak_the_preparer]

My apologies for posting my previous item without first checking this thread to see if the image had already been provided. Was rushing. Also, it actually seems like better images are available from the CBS and <gulp> FoxNews versions of the story (both having some nice big images).<br /><br />The BBC article cited above does, however, link to Scientists reveal the first images from the probe, where some videoclips can be viewed. Some here may wish to check them out if they haven't come across something similar somewhere else.<br /><br />Yours from behind the curve,<br />Serak : ) <br /><br />[Edit: P.S.<br />Meteo, thanks for your link! Some interesting images there. Ones I like in particular: 719: Land-ho?; 713: Shrouded in the distance; 704: A brand new shore; 605: Hy-Brasil; 560: Dendrite Delta; 470: Mists of Avalon]

 

[fangsheath]

This area is quite intriguing to me, above is a portion of the mosaic released by ESA, below is my processing of a raw image of the area. The area around the landing site seems to be one of gentle slopes, but this area has what look like odd irregularly-shaped protuberances, which have a very different albedo from the surrounding terrain. I am looking forward to seeing processed panoramas.