Cassini-Huygens Historic Adventure - ESA Reflects On Titan Landing
The European Space Agency recalls the historic landing on the Saturn moon and the mission that made it possible.
Credit: ESA
Credit: ESA
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00:00Almost 20 years after launch, the Cassini spacecraft continues to send back stunning
00:17images from Saturn.
00:19And as Cassini's end approaches on September 15, this joint ESA and NASA mission can recall
00:26some spectacular successes.
00:29One of its highlights remains the first-ever landing on an alien moon, when, in 2005, Cassini's
00:37European probe, Huygens, made contact with the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
00:46Titan is the only moon with a thick atmosphere, and Huygens took several hours to descend
00:52by parachute onto an unknown world.
00:57Inside a control room at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, mission
01:03scientists and the world's press awaited confirmation that Huygens had landed.
01:09The signal was received via the Green Bank telescope in the USA, from a European spacecraft
01:151.2 billion kilometres away.
01:18It used the same power as a cell phone and was described as more challenging than looking
01:23for a needle in a haystack.
01:27With an extraordinary effort that I still frankly can't believe, the radio astronomers
01:33of the world, the world, gathered together to look at the little telephone signal, telephone
01:47level signal coming from the other side of the solar system.
01:51And after an anxious wait in the control room, the scientific data and images began
01:57to arrive.
01:59Meanwhile the audience was able to hear Huygens' radar echoes gradually rise in pitch as it
02:05approached touchdown.
02:17What is absolutely remarkable is that in that entire three hours and 36 or 37 minutes
02:23of data, we cannot find a single missing data frame, that the link and the quality of the
02:30data was absolutely superb.
02:34So we are the first visitors of Titan and the scientific data that we are collecting
02:41now shall unveil the secrets of this new world.
02:47In releasing the first image of this new alien world, colour images showed incredible views
02:52of Titan from four altitudes, ranging from 150 kilometres to 15 kilometres, 2 and less
03:02than half a kilometre above the Moon's surface.
03:07Studying Titan has revealed a Moon with many possible parallels to Earth, but it took a
03:11change in season before scientists discovered that Titan rained, but it did not rain water.
03:20The temperature at the surface of Titan is about minus 180 degrees, so it's very cold.
03:27The landscapes of Titan look a lot like those we have on Earth.
03:30We have rivers, lakes, seas, almost oceans of methane.
03:35It rains, it rains methane or a mix of ethane and methane, so there are lots of meteorological
03:40phenomena or geophysical phenomena on Titan that makes you think of what happens on Earth.
03:47But the ingredients are quite different.
03:52The Cassini spacecraft made its 127th close flyby of Titan in April this year, another
04:00opportunity to study its hydrocarbon lakes and marmalade-coloured skies.
04:06There are over 60 other moons around Saturn, each with their own surprises, but when Huygens
04:12landed on Titan's surface, it made history.
04:16The European probe science instruments determined the structure of the atmosphere, made the
04:20first direct measurements of winds on the Moon, and found hints of a subsurface ocean
04:26beneath its frozen surface.
04:29There are more mysteries to unravel, but thanks to Huygens, together with the discovery of
04:34organic molecules in the upper atmosphere by Cassini, Titan has been revealed as one
04:41of the most interesting objects in our solar system.