Visit to Titan, Saturn’s Moon
In late 2004, a small milestone in space exploration is another giant leap for mankind in search for signs of water in other extra-terrestial objects. The $3.2 billion Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moon has been quite a success so far. “Huygens space craft has landed on Titan, Saturn’s moon and sent back the first images of Titan’s surface, showing what appears to be a shoreline of an oily ocean. One stunning black and white image reveals what seem to be drainage channels on a land surface leading out into a dark body of liquid. Another shows a flat surface that is apparently strewn with boulders.
Scientists said Huygens captured more than 300 images as it dived through the moon’s atmosphere. Speaking about the picture of an apparent shoreline, John Zarnecki, principal investigator for the surface science package (SSP) on Huygens said: “If it’s not a sea, it could be a lake of tar. And did one see waves?”
The European Space Agency has released images captured from altitudes of 16.2km, 8km and one on the surface. “The pictures just got better after we passed through the haze,” said Marty Tomasko, who leads the probe’s imaging team.
“We may be seeing a coastline, but that does not necessarily mean it’s liquid now,” mission scientist Andrew Ball, of the Open University told the BBC News website. “It looks like something has flowed at some time to make those channels. But is it something that has solidified?”
The first colour view of Titan’s surface from the Huygens probe
The probe has been sending back data about the moon since it arrived on Titan - the furthest from Earth a spacecraft has ever landed. Jean-Pierre Lebreton, mission manager for Huygens said the craft had been active for up to seven hours. He added this was probably down to good design keeping Huygens’ instruments warmer than expected despite the temperatures of -179C outside.
Scientists are now piecing together the images, measurements and sounds that are being beamed back to Earth from the Cassini spacecraft, which had carried Huygens for the past seven years. These should give detailed information on the moon’s weather and chemistry. The sounds of Titan’s stormy atmosphere were recorded with an onboard microphone, and scientists hope they might even hear lightning strikes when they analyse the data. The European-built probe entered Titan’s atmosphere at an altitude of 1,270km (789 miles) at about 1000 GMT.
Dominated by nitrogen, methane and other organic (carbon-based) molecules, conditions on Titan are believed to resemble those on Earth 4.6 billion years ago. As such, it may tell scientists more about the kind of chemical reactions that set the scene for the emergence of life on Earth. The Cassini spacecraft arrived at Saturn in July 2004. It released Huygens towards Titan on 25 December. ”
Probes have landed on alien surfaces like in Venus and this time, on Titan. It’s really amazing to see the success of the missions even though the probes did not survive long due to the extreme conditions. However, as such missions cleared some doubts, they raises further questions about how these places evolved into present conditions. Perhaps it’s time for us to send more reliable crafts (though it’s expensive). Yeap, this is when scientist and engineers come in handy. I wonder when will we be able to send human to Mars, or even to other planets. (It looks cool in Civilisation 4 when I managed to complete space race; sending the first human to alpha century [Hey, games are games, ok? Come back to reality!!)
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