Huygens - A Technical and Programmatic Overview
Abstract
Huygens is the ESA-provided element of Cassini/Huygens, the joint NASA/ESA planetary mission to the Saturnian System. Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is a major target of the mission. The Saturn Orbiter is to be provided by NASA, with a significant contribution from the Italian Space Agency under a bilateral NASA/ASI agreement. The spacecraft will be launched in October 1997, with Huygens attached to the Saturn Orbiter. Released from the mother spacecraft after a seven-year-long interplanetary journey to Saturn, the Huygens Probe will plunge into Titan in late 2004. Huygens is designed to enter and brake in Titan's atmosphere in order to parachute a fully-instrumented robotic laboratory down to its surface. From the scientific viewpoint, the main Huygens mission phase, which is designed to last 2 to 2.5 hours, will be the parachute descent through Titan's atmosphere. Scientific measurements will also be performed during the entry phase, which will last just a few minutes. The Probe resources are sized to allow scientific measurements even after it has impacted on Titan's surface for at least a few minutes. The Probe's radio link will be activated early in the descent phase and the data will be relayed to the Cassini Orbiter for on-board storage and subsequent transmission to Earth.
- Publication:
-
ESA Bulletin
- Pub Date:
- February 1994
- Bibcode:
- 1994ESABu..77...21H
- Keywords:
-
- Cassini Mission;
- European Space Agency;
- International Cooperation;
- Mission Planning;
- Parachute Descent;
- Spacecraft Design;
- Electronic Modules;
- Instrument Packages;
- Spacecraft Structures;
- Astronautics (General);
- SPACE;
- EXPLORATION;
- PROBES;
- CASSINI MISSION;
- EQUIPMENT;
- SATELLITES;
- SATURN;
- TITAN;
- MISSION DESCRIPTION;
- ATMOSPHERE;
- TECHNICAL ASPECTS;
- SCIENCE ASPECTS;
- HISTORY;
- SPACECRAFT;
- DESIGN;
- Space Exploration; Saturn