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| Ices, rock, organic material - what is Titan really made of? |
| Scientists expect to have a much clearer vision of the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, when the Huygens probe touches down on its surface in 2004. In the meantime, both ground-based telescopes and space observatories are contributing to the growing body of information on the nature of Titan's surface. |
| Date: 15 May 2001 |
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| First results from the Jupiter observation campaign at the EGS |
| While Huygens 'sleeps' during most of the seven year trip to Titan, many of the Cassini Orbiter instruments have already started to obtain exciting scientific data. For example, during the gravity-assist manoeuvres around
Venus and Earth in mid-1999, calibration measurements were made. These are important for understanding
the in-flight performances of the instruments and for preparing for the mission for which they have been
designed - observations of Saturn and Titan. |
| Date: 05 Apr 2001 |
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| Huygens seventh in-flight checkout report |
| Seventh in-flight checkout report; 22-23 March 2001
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| Date: 26 Mar 2001 |
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| Huygens Probe wake-up call tonight at 21:00 UTC |
| The 7th regular in-flight Huygens Probe checkout is scheduled to take place tonight at 21:00 UTC. The purpose of these regular in-flight checkouts is to verify the good health of the Probe and of its scientific payload. |
| Date: 22 Mar 2001 |
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| ESA's solar system missions to get star billing in Nice |
| Geophysicists attending next week's General Assembly of
the European Geophysical Society in Nice won't just be discussing the latest scientific research about the Earth. They will also be turning their attention to other bodies within our solar system and the missions Europe is sending to explore them. |
| Date: 20 Mar 2001 |
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| Huygens relay link mystery fully unravelled |
| A special calibration test is being conducted with the Huygens receivers on board Cassini. This test is the first key milestone of the work performed by the Huygens Recovery Task Force which has been jointly set up by ESA's Science Director and NASA's Science Associate Administrator. The test results will provide a solid engineering basis for the design of new mission scenarios which can recover the Huygens relay link performance. |
| Date: 03 Feb 2001 |
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| Cassini and Galileo spacecraft analyse volcanic ashes at Jupiter |
| In December 2000, when NASA's Cassini spacecraft will pass by Jupiter, scientists from the Max Planck Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany, will analyse microscopic ash particles from volcanoes on the giant planet's satellite Io. It will be the first in-situ analysis of surface material from a planetary satellite of our solar system other than the Earth's moon. |
| Date: 10 Jan 2001 |
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| Happy New Year from Jupiter! |
| As the year draws to a close international teams of scientists have been enjoying a unique opportunity to make coordinated observations of the largest planet in our Solar System. The NASA/ESA Cassini spacecraft made its closest approach to Jupiter, around 9.7 million kilometres, yesterday morning. NASA's Galileo spacecraft has already been orbiting Jupiter since 1995. Scientists using instruments on both Cassini and Galileo gave a preview at a press conference at JPL of what they are beginning to discover from their joint studies.
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| Date: 31 Dec 2000 |
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| Huygens communications link enquiry board report |
| In February 2000, after the fifth in-flight cruise check-out of the Huygens Probe, a dedicated Probe Relay Link Test was performed, aimed at characterising the performance of the Probe Support Equipment (PSE) under realistic mission conditions. This test revealed some unexplained anomalies in the communication subsystem in terms of data recovery in the presence of Doppler at mission-representative levels.
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| Date: 20 Dec 2000 |
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| "Sounds" of outer space near Jupiter now online |
| NASA's Cassini spacecraft, approaching Jupiter, is detecting waves in
the thin gas of charged particles that fills the space between the Sun
and its planets. The waves are in low radio frequencies, which have been
converted to sound waves to make the patterns audible.
|
| Date: 18 Dec 2000 |
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| Uncovering the mysteries of Jupiter's aurora [heic0009] |
| This week European and American researchers seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gather simultaneous observations from the NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens space mission and the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. |
| Date: 14 Dec 2000 |
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| Live interactive webcasts from the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) |
| JPL have planned four webcasts to mark Cassini-Huygens' Jupiter Millennium Flyby later this month. These live presentations, hosted by Charles White, JPL Design Hub System Engineer, will discuss the mission and other topics related to the exploration of Jupiter and Saturn. |
| Date: 06 Dec 2000 |
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| Huygens helps Cassini to meet Galileo at Jupiter |
| As the Cassini spacecraft starts its approach of Jupiter, the Huygens Probe and all its onboard instruments remain dormant. However, Huygens is not going to be totally passive. The role of Huygens in acting as a sunshield will be crucial in protecting Cassini's instruments from the heat of the Sun. |
| Date: 22 Nov 2000 |
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| Swedish winner for the Cassini-Huygens quiz!! |
| In May this year, when Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn aligned , ESA proposed the Cassini-Huygens contest. The competitors had to answer two questions:
How big a telescope would be needed to see Cassini/Huygens in mid-May 2000?
At what angle with respect to the Sun-Earth line would you see it?
|
| Date: 21 Nov 2000 |
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| Huygens communications package under investigation |
| During an extensive in-flight end-to-end telecommunications test conducted in early February 2000,
characteristics of ESA's Huygens-Cassini communications link were observed which had not been
previously measured. The test was a more extensive calibration at system level than the one which had
previously been undertaken.
The outcome of the link characteristics would be that not all the data generated during the
descent and landing would be decoded by the Huygens receivers on-board Cassini. |
| Date: 05 Oct 2000 |
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| Huygens sixth in-flight checkout report |
| The sixth Huygens in-flight checkout; 28 July 2000 |
| Date: 29 Jul 2000 |
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| 6th Huygens checkout on 28 July |
| The 6th Huygens in-flight checkout will be executed on Friday 28 July from 16:00 GMT to 20:00 GMT.
The Huygens activities will be carried out while Cassini will be in view of the Goldstone Deep Space Antenna.The Huygens telemetry data will be routed via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, to the Huygens Probe Operations Centre (HPOC) at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany. Arrival of the first data in HPOC is expected at around 17:00 GMT (19:00 Local Time).
|
| Date: 27 Jul 2000 |
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| The flybys around Venus and the Earth provided a calibration opportunity for the instruments aboard Huygens and Cassini |
Updated 8 May
A very successful session entitled "The Jovian and Saturnian systems: surfaces and atmospheres - The Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan" took place from 28 to 29 April, as part of the 2000 Assembly of the European Geophysics Society in Nice. The audience included mission scientists and their collaborators and many other scientists not directly involved with the mission, who shared the same feelings that the swingbys around Venus and the Earth had not only allowed an unique opportunity for instrument calibration operations, but had also been bringing a considerable amount of new and unique science data.
|
| Date: 04 May 2000 |
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| Huygens to test Volta's 200-year old invention at Titan |
| The Cassini/Huygens spacecraft has already completed a third of its interplanetary journey to Saturn and Titan.
During the journey the Huygens Probe is usually dormant, so it does not require much electrical power to stay
healthy. Even when it does need electrical power for the periodic checkout activities, it can always rely on the
Orbiter's radio-isotope thermo-electric generators. So the probe is like a baby in the womb, being fed by the
mother Orbiter. Once the baby is born, it has to learn to survive by itself and the same applies to Huygens.
After the release from Cassini, the Probe will have to rely on its own power electrical generator: 5 LiSO2
batteries with a total capacity of 1800 Wh. |
| Date: 27 Mar 2000 |
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| New Cassini images of asteroid Masursky |
| New images taken by the camera onboard the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft are giving scientists the first size estimates on asteroid 2685 Masursky
and preliminary evidence that it may have different material propertiesthan previously believed, NASA reports.
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| Date: 15 Feb 2000 |
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