News Archive

News Archive

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).
Published: 27 July 2000
Updated 8 MayA 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.
Published: 4 May 2000
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.
Published: 27 March 2000
New images taken by the camera onboard the Saturn-bound Cassini spacecraft are giving scientists the first size estimates on asteroid 2685 Masurskyand preliminary evidence that it may have different material propertiesthan previously believed, NASA reports.
Published: 14 February 2000
The Huygens S-band Probe Relay test was successfully completed during the night of 4 to 5 February. The test started on 4 February at 21:45 UTC and finished on 5 February at 05:15 UTC.
Published: 8 February 2000
The fifth in-flight Huygens checkout was successfully completed during the night of 2 to 3 February. The Probe was switched on at 23:00 UTC on 2February and switched OFF at 02:50 UTC on 3 February. The data came down with a 25 min delay due to the propagation time of the radio signal from Cassini/Huygens to the Earth. The telemetry data were made available to the Huygens Flight Operations Team at HPOC at ESOC in Darmstadt (D). A preliminary evaluation of the data by the Flight Operations Team indicates that all subsystems and experiments performed as expected.
Published: 2 February 2000
The fifth in-flight Huygens checkout was successfully completed during the night of 2 to 3 February. The Probe was switched on at 23:00 UTC on 2February and switched OFF at 02:50 UTC on 3 February. The data came down with a 25 min delay due to the propagation time of the radio signal from Cassini/Huygens to the Earth. The telemetry data were made available to the Huygens Flight Operations Team at HPOC at ESOC in Darmstadt (D). A preliminary evaluation of the data by the Flight Operations Team indicates that all subsystems and experiments performed as expected.
Published: 2 February 2000
The 5th Huygens Probe in-flight checkout and other Huygens test activities take place 2-5 February. The checkout will be activated tonight at 23:00 CET and lasts for 4 hours. Yesterday, the spacecraft was successfully re-oriented so as to point its High Gain Antenna (HGA) towards Earth. This makes it possible to get high-rate telemetry in real time. The Probe checkout will be executed in direct visibility from the Goldstone Deep Space Network (DSN) station and thus data will arrive in quasi-real time (at 300 000 kms-1 radio waves take about 20 minutes to reach in Earth) at the Huygens Probe Control Centre at ESOC, Darmstadt (D) through the Cassini Control Centre at JPL.
Published: 1 February 2000
Saturn and its mysterious moon Titan are the primary target of the NASA/ESA CassiniHuygens mission, but the final destination is still a long way away. The spacecraft, which has just passed the closest approach in a swing-by of Jupiter, will take four more years to reach the 'king of the rings' and start studying its atmosphere, rings, interior and magnetic field environment, as well as Titan and the planet's other moons. Huygens, ESA's first planetary probe, will have to wait longer, until after arrival at Saturn, to enter Titan's atmosphere and explore this mysterious cold world.
Published: 14 January 2000
It is exactly two years since ESA's Huygens Probe set off on its remarkable journey towards Saturn's mysterious moon Titan, aboard NASA's Cassini Orbiter. Since its launch on 15 October 1997, Cassini/Huygens has now travelled 1.863 billion kilometres, and is en route for the final gravity-assist manoeuvre around Jupiter in December 2000.
Published: 15 October 1999
The fourth in-flight check-out of the Huygens Probe was successfully completed on 15 September 1999, as planned. All sub-systems and experiments performed as expected. Huygens can now sleep until the next wake-up call in early February 2000.
Published: 15 September 1999
ESA's Huygens probe will be woken from its seven-year sleep shortlyafter midnight tonight for a routine checkout. For the first time sincethe initial checkout just eight days after launch, Huygens flightcontrollers at ESA's control centre in Darmstadt will be able to followthe event in real time. The checkout begins at 01:00 Universal Time 15September.
Published: 14 September 1999
This remarkable observation of the Cassini/Huygens spacecraft was made from Australia while it was on its way out towards Jupiter a few hours after it had successfully completed its Earth flyby on 18 August at 3:38 UTC. The swingby was performed to give the NASA/ESA Cassini/Huygens space probe a 5.5 km/s boostin speed, propelling it towards Saturn, more than 1 billion kilometres away.
Published: 24 August 1999
The NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens spacecraft bid goodbye to Earth as it completed a highly accurate pass by our planet and swung away towards its encounter with Saturn in 2004. The Earth flyby occurred at 03:28 UT on 18 August and gave the space probe a 5.5 km per second boost in speed, propelling it towards the ringed planet, more than 1 billion kilometres away.
Published: 18 August 1999
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft today successfully performed a final adjustment to its trajectory and is on course for a flyby of Earth that will take place on Wedneday, 18 August at 5:28 CEST (03:28 Universal Time).
Published: 12 August 1999
Cassini-Huygens successfully completed its second flyby of the planet Venus late last night.As planned, Cassini-Huygens flew by Venus at about 600 km altitude above the surface at 22:30 CET on 24 June, with Venus' gravity giving the spacecraft a boost in speed to help it reach Saturn more than 1 billion kilometres away.
Published: 25 June 1999
The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will perform its second Venus flybytoday. Its closest approach to the planet will occur at 22:30:05 Central European Time (CET).
Published: 24 June 1999
The Huygens Science Working Team meets regularly in order to review theProbe biannual checkout results and also to prepare for the Huygens Probe mission phase that will take place in November 2004.This time, the Huygens SWT meeting was hosted by the DISR team, at theLunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona. Each team reported on the detailed analysis of their respective instrument performances during the last checkout that took place on 22 Dec 1998. All instruments are in good health and performed nominally.
Published: 6 April 1999
The third inflight checkout of the Huygens Probe was successfully completed over the Christmas period. All systems and experiments performed as expected. Huygens can now sleep on for the next 8.5 months, until its next wake up call in mid-September 1999. Checking of the Cassini's spacecraft continues throughout the month of January.
Published: 11 January 1999
The third Huygens in-flight check-out (F3) started on-board the Probe at 22:20 UTC on 21 December 1998 and was completed at 02:35 UTC, 22 December.
Published: 21 December 1998
29-Mar-2024 15:02 UT