Pictures from Titan TODAY!

Hey folks

if anyone is lucky enough to have access to the NASA channel you might want to turn in around noon EST today. The pictures from the Huygens probe which landed successfully (they think) on Titan should be streaming in by then.

This is a very very big deal!

The regular news may do a piece on it when the pictures start coming in (5 hours delayed at the speed of light /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif ) took 7 years to get there, 20 years to plan and put together! This is good stuff. And of course nasa streams all that stuff too on the web I think.

Ah excellent!
This will be very exciting,, i just hope it goes as well as the SPIRIT OPPORTUNITY projects went. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

BTW, NASAs site is the fasted site in the world !@!!!!

During SPIRIT they uploaded over 18 terabyptes ,.,,, the fitst DAY !

I'm really looking forward to the Titan pics. Sure hope the probe found a good place to land and didn't sink in a methane sea. Stuff like this ranks right up there with flashlights.

Geoff

I think one of the only things they know so far is that it's much more solid where it landed than they expected.

Right now the suits are talking and congratulating each other /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

We're still a few minutes away from pictures probably.

hmm, tried to watch the streaming video of it, but it keeps pausing and buffering /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif and yes, im on broadband

http://www.cnn.com/ has the one single picture they released on it's home page at the moment. They are probably going to post process the hell out of the rest of them before they release any more so that they look a little clearer. That one picture though is REALLY interesting having erosion channels leading down to a sea! Methane ice and sea and a methane beach /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

or perhaps they couldn't release anymore because the Titan hotel's along the water were too obvious...

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I eagerly await the rest of the pictures. The thing was only supposed to last a few minutes it was so cold, but they got 2 full hours of data streamed out of it which is fantastic.

New picture from the SURFACE just released !

It shows what looks like a headstone, and the barely decipherable words, "Jimmy Hof....."

I heard that the mothership used a revolutionary "Ion" drive system ... is that true? And if yes, what is that?
bernhard

Ion drive isn't like warp drive /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
In the simplest terms, ions (electrically-charged atoms) from something like cesium are expelled into an electrically-charged tube, which are accellerated to very high velocities and ejected out a nozzle at the back end of the engine.
In theory, this can propel a space probe to half the speed of light; but as far as I'm aware, most ion engines have a thrust of a pound or two at maximum at zero velocity, decreasing as the probe or whatever accelerates.

Talk about polar bear club. Let's go splash in liquid methane /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I believe this to be the ESA's finest hour and the success of the Huygens Probe and the Cassini-Huygens mission to be an awesome tribute to international partnership.

Al /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif

Yikes. And I thought it was cold these days here in CA! Great stuff. Sends shivers down my spine.

(And yet we can't seem to get it together here on earth to make Electric Vehicles for the masses. Grumble)

Space travel really needs successes like this one to get the funds to advance its course. Failures we have enough ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif
bernhard

Check your local listings, apparently the Discovery Channel is showing a program called Target Titan.

That is so cool!

My kids have really enjoyed looking at the images sent back by Cassini/Huygens.

Especially this picture of Saturn's moon Mimas:



(They're Star Wars nuts...)

We'd better get out of here. Where's Red 5? Anyone had any practice targetting Wamp rats?

lmao!

BTW they are great pictures!