Huygens!

[chris]

Is anyone else tuned into the broadcast from mission headquarters in Darmstadt? I haven't been this excited about a mission in . . . well, never.

--Chris

[maxim]

Unfortunately not
I don't get digital broadcasts and I don't have hispeed access to the net. So I will have to wait for the webnews.

maxim

[Harry]

There hasn't been much news on the web yet, except "Radio astronomers confirm Huygens entry in the atmosphere of Titan". Great

I hope all goes as planned...

Harald

[abburdlen]

Mission controllers say the tone from Huygens is still being received! The craft appears to have landed around 1245 or 1246 GMT (7:45 or 7:46 a.m. EST) on Titan and continues to operate from the moon's surface.

http://spaceflightnow.com/cassini/status.html

[Harry]

Same source:

Huygens remains alive and sending its beeping signal from the surface -- more than an hour after controllers calculate it landed.

That's good news! So it didn't fail (at least not completely), and it even survived the landing...

The ticker at this ESA page says that first data may be received at 17:15 - but they don't say which timezone According to the mission timeline they originally expected data to be received at 16:14 CET. Maybe they got the timezone conversion wrong (or I got it wrong )

Harald

[Pierebean]

We can't wait to see pictures form titan. Do you know ,when will we see them?
does the esa have a TV in streaming ? the nasa does have one but i wasn't able to find esa's one.

[The Singing Badger]

It was just announced that ESA is very confident that the mission was a success and picturs are coming soon! Huygens is still alive even though Cassini has turned away! It must have survived the landing!

[Harry]

We can't wait to see pictures form titan. Do you know ,when will we see them?

No, I assume it will take some time after the signal has been received. One ESA page puts the times for the first signals from Cassini at 17:15 CET/16:15 GMT, and first science data at 20:45 CET, with more data at 23:00 CET.

does the esa have a TV in streaming ? the nasa does have one but i wasn't able to find esa's one.

Apparently NASA does have much better PR than ESA But NASA's stream should be the real deal anyway...

Harald

[Harry]

OK, they just reported that they are receiving first data from Cassini right now - no Huygens data yet, but still

[chris]

I was very happy to wake up to find that the carrier signal from Huygens. Now, just half an hour more before the real science data is received!

[Guest]

They'll receive first data in half an hour, apparently (it's now 11.35 my time (Atlantic time))

[andersa]

The carrier signal indicating success is received directly from Huygens by Earth stations, while the science data has (hopefully) been collected by Cassini for relay to Earth over the next few hours (they should be receiving it right now).

If Earth stations can pick up the carrier, why not the data as well? Is the signal simply too faint for any data to be extracted from it, while the carrier is detectable?

I thought the idea was to use radio telescopes on Earth to try to pick up the faint Huygens data signal as a backup measure just in case the there were still problems with the Cassini relay operation, even after compensating for the doppler shift problem discovered in 2000. Was this backup measure never really implemented?

Interesting that Huygens appears to continue transmitting even after Cassini has stopped listening, probably because Cassini is now below Titan's horizon as seen from the Huygens landing site. Huygens was designed to survive for three minutes after landing, but outperformed that. If it had landed further west (towards Saturn and Cassini), would it have allowed for more data to be relayed, or is Huygens simply out of most data acquisition opportunities once on the ground?

I'd love to see those extraterrestrial penguins pull Huygens into their nest, but I'm worried it will take them more than three minutes to turn up...

[The Singing Badger]

This footage of anxious technicians twiddling their thumbs and trying to make smalltalk is strangely compelling!

[Harry]

Is the signal simply too faint for any data to be extracted from it, while the carrier is detectable?

Yes, they weren't even sure they would be able to detect it.

I thought the idea was to use radio telescopes on Earth to try to pick up the faint Huygens data signal as a backup measure just in case the there were still problems with the Cassini relay operation

AFAIK this was never planned. It's just a way to quickly check that Huygens is/was alive.

This footage of anxious technicians twiddling their thumbs and trying to make smalltalk is strangely compelling!

Yes, the suspense is killing me Unfortunately the webcast isn't working perfectly for me, I am getting more and more interruptions

Harald

[Harry]

Hehe, the ESA page is already reporting "success" at 17:30 (though it's marked as "PLACEHOLDER"9, even though it's just 17:19. Apparently somebody pushed the wrong button I hope it's true nevertheless

Harald

[The Singing Badger]

Everybody's clapping!!!!! Success!!!! Yay!!!

I've been waiting for this moment since I was fifteen years old.

[chris]

Data received apparently . . . But, there seems to be an atmosphere of apprehension in the control room.

[The Singing Badger]

First results to be announced tonight, apparently. Which is boring. Hurry up, guys! But hey, at least it's a success!!!

[The Singing Badger]

They just said that although Cassini has tuirned away from Huygens, the probe is still broadcasting long after landing, so they ae turning Earth's radio telescopes toward Titan in the hope of picking up some more information.

[Tanketai]

I actually can watch the Nasa stream, but half of it is in german... and as I can barely understand english, I could rather be listening to a greek transmisson...
But, from what I did understand, one of the data channels is not working; they're using the doppler effect to analize the atmosphere; and now the transmission changed back to JPL...