Huygens question

Sky Pilot · Post #1by **Sky Pilot** » 06.01.2005, 18:44

Reading on the Cassini-Huygens web site, it talks about the Huygens probe's descent through the atmosphere taking 2 1/2 hours. Why will it take so long, at the speed it travels, to descend through the atmosphere?

maxim · Post #2by **maxim** » 06.01.2005, 20:14

Because it needs to break I suppose.

maxim

Evil Dr Ganymede · Post #3by **Evil Dr Ganymede** » 06.01.2005, 22:49

maxim wrote:Because it needs to break I suppose.

maxim

I hope you meant "brake" there (as in slow down) - we really don't want it to break!

.

Plus, that's one hell of a thick atmosphere too - it's about 400 km thick! So it's bound to take a bit longer than normal just because of that...

Michael Kilderry · Post #4by **Michael Kilderry** » 07.01.2005, 02:43

I thought Maxim meant Huygens needed to take a snack break on the descent to Titan.

Michael Kilderry

maxim · Post #5by **maxim** » 07.01.2005, 08:49

Evil Dr Ganymede wrote:I hope you meant "brake" there (as in slow down) - we really don't want it to break! Smile.

Yes, of course I do :roll:

Sometimes my english is incredible bad. I suddenly misspell words, I used correctly for years.

maxim

ElPelado · Post #6by **ElPelado** » 15.01.2005, 22:55

It took so long because they wanted to make as much atmosphere science as they could, and for that they used 3 parachutes.
Normally it would have taken less time, like the MER rovers, that after 6 minutes of touching the atmosphere, were already bouncing in the surface...