Science and Technology : Exploring the Surface of Titan with Cassini-Huygens

Gorilla

Well-Known Member
REGISTERED MEMBER
Jan 31, 2009
2,450
1,375
Cassini–Huygens is a joint NASA/ESA/ASI spacecraft mission studying the planet Saturn and its many natural satellites since 2004. Launched in 1997 after nearly two decades of gestation, it includes a Saturn orbiter and an atmospheric probe/lander for the moon Titan, although it has also returned data on a wide variety of other things including the Heliosphere, Jupiter, and relativity tests. The Titan probe, Huygens, entered and landed on Titan in 2005. The current end of mission plan is a 2017 Saturn impact.

The complete Cassini–Huygens space probe was launched on October 15, 1997 by a Titan IVB/Centaur, and after a long interplanetary voyage it entered into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004. On December 25, 2004, the Huygens probe was separated from the orbiter at approximately 02:00 UTC. It reached Saturn's moon Titan on January 14, 2005, when it descended into Titan's atmosphere, and downward to the surface, sending scientific information back to the Earth via radio telemetry. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer Solar System. On April 18, 2008, NASA announced a two-year extension of the funding for ground operations of this mission, at which point it was renamed to Cassini Equinox Mission.[3] This was again extended in February 2010 with the Cassini Solstice Mission continuing until 2017. Cassini is the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter orbit.

Sixteen European countries and the United States make up the team responsible for designing, building, flying and collecting data from the Cassini orbiter and Huygens probe. The mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in the United States, where the orbiter was designed and assembled. Development of the Huygens Titan probe was managed by the European Space Research and Technology Centre, whose prime contractor for the probe was the Alcatel company in France. Equipment and instruments for the probe were supplied from many countries. The Italian Space Agency (ASI) provided the Cassini probe's high-gain radio antenna, and a compact and lightweight radar, which acts in multipurpose as a synthetic aperture radar, a radar altimeter, and a radiometer.

Cassini is powered by 32.7 kg[4] of plutonium-238 — the heat from the material's radioactive decay is turned into electricity. Huygens was supported by Cassini during cruise, but used chemical batteries when independent.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini–Huygens

Exploring the Surface of Titan (Smithsonian Lecture):
 
I dont understand white people...with their high-tech, their funds and their unparalleled scientific knowledge and they waste it exploring space, are you freaking kiddin me?...when there are so many problems on earth and so many people dying of aids, malaria and malnutrition one would think they would devote themselves to helping their fellow humans. They are so selfish.

They dont understand this concept: "with power comes responsibility"
 
I dont understand white people...with their high-tech, their funds and their unparalleled scientific knowledge and they waste it exploring space, are you freaking kiddin me?...when there are so many problems on earth and so many people dying of aids, malaria and malnutrition one would think they would devote themselves to helping their fellow humans. They are so selfish.

They dont understand this concept: "with power comes responsibility"

It is not white people people that you don't understand it's intelligent people. I find it revolting that you have to associate space exploration with a race and disrespecting black astrophysicists like Neil Degrasse. If anything more money should be spent on space exploration so that when that one asteroid heads toward earth we are not sitting ducks like the dinosaurs were. I wish I could dislike your post.
 
Lofty goals like space exploration require solving so many problems that have practical applications, and NASA's operational budget is tiny compared to other expenditure in the U.S.

The NASA (National Aeronautic Space Administration) budget for FY 2013 was $17.7 billion, $1 billion less than what was spent in FY 2010. This is 1.4% of total discretionary spending. It's a larger percent than in 2010, which was just 1% of the budget. However, it's small when compared to these departments:

Defense - $851 billion.
Education - $69.8 billion.
Health and Human Services - $71.7 billion.
Housing and Urban Development - $35.3 billion.
Agriculture - $21.4 billion.

Source: http://useconomy.about.com/od/usfederalbudget/p/nasa_budget_cost.htm
Source: http://www.space.com/14551-nasa-budget-2013-request-obama-mars.html

I agree that we should spend more money on social problems, but I think NASA is the wrong spot to go scraping for it.
 
It is not white people people that you don't understand it's intelligent people. I find it revolting that you have to associate space exploration with a race and disrespecting black astrophysicists like Neil Degrasse. If anything more money should be spent on space exploration so that when that one asteroid heads toward earth we are not sitting ducks like the dinosaurs were. I wish I could dislike your post.

The Space Race during the Cold War was a money dump between the U.S and the Soviet Union, both european/white societies, nations or whatever you want to call them. They have been spearheading these missions and programs. Just because there are some non-white dudes here and there doesnt really change the focus that they have been the ones behind the space exploration.

There are no known asteroids heading towards Earth. You can relax, we are not going to go extinct in the near future.

Lofty goals like space exploration require solving so many problems that have practical applications, and NASA's operational budget is tiny compared to other expenditure in the U.S.

I agree that we should spend more money on social problems, but I think NASA is the wrong spot to go scraping for it.

Military developments are even more practical and have solved much more problems than space exploration. The former even accounts for much of the later development. For example, the Wehrmacht developed an advanced rocket program to bomb the UK from mainland Europe. These V-2 rockets are the progenitors of all modern rockets, and many of the german scientists who were involved in these programs were brought to NASA or the Soviet Space Agency to continue their work.

Right know they are working on railguns (ever see the movie Eraser) to deliver a payload to outer space without the use of expensive rockets. More military technology.

Im not againts exploring space, but what could we possibly learn from exploring Titan or any other astral bodies? Telemetric data already show that our solar system is a lifeless desert and we already know what these planets and moons are made off.
 

Donate

Support destee.com, the oldest, most respectful, online black community in the world - PayPal or CashApp

Latest profile posts

HODEE wrote on Etophil's profile.
Welcome to Destee
@Etophil
Destee wrote on SleezyBigSlim's profile.
Hi @SleezyBigSlim ... Welcome Welcome Welcome ... :flowers: ... please make yourself at home ... :swings:
Back
Top