View re-creation of Huygens probe landing on Titan

A recent article posted at http://www.saturndaily.com points readers to a link at the NASA Jet Propulsion Labs on-line Planetary Photo Journal featuring a movie, viewable on your computer, of the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer camera on board the European Space Agency's Huygens probe landing on Saturn's moon Titan on Jan. 14, 2005.

To view the QuickTime movie visit the JPL site at:
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA08117
(Be patient and allow time for the entire site to load.)

The almost four-hour-long operation of the camera is shown in less than five minutes. The first part of the movie shows how Titan looked to the camera as it acquired more and more images during the probe's descent. Each image has a small field of view, and dozens of images were made into mosaics of the whole scene.

Sounds from a left speaker trace Huygens' motion, with tones changing with rotational speed and the tilt of the parachute. There also are clicks that clock the rotational counter, as well as sounds for the probe's heat shield hitting Titan's atmosphere, parachute deployments, heat shield release, jettison of the camera cover and touchdown.

Sounds from a right speaker go with the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer activity. There's a continuous tone that represents the strength of Huygens' signal to Cassini. Then there are 13 different chimes - one for each of instrument's 13 different science parts - that keep time with flashing-white-dot exposure counters. During its descent, the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer took 3,500 exposures.

More details can also be read on-line at:
http://www.saturndaily.com/reports/
Scientists_Compile_Huygens_Descent_Movies.html

Source: Amsat, SpaceDaily.com, SaturnDaily.com, and NASA Jet Propulsion

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