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Concept
Huygens (spacecraft)
Summary
Huygens (ˈhɔɪɡənz ) was an atmospheric entry robotic space probe that landed successfully on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005. Built and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), launched by NASA, it was part of the Cassini–Huygens mission and became the first spacecraft to land on Titan and the farthest landing from Earth a spacecraft has ever made. The probe was named after the 17th-century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, who discovered Titan in 1655.
The combined Cassini–Huygens spacecraft was launched from Earth on October 15, 1997. Huygens separated from the Cassini orbiter on December 25, 2004, and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005 near the Adiri region. Huygenss landing is so far the only one accomplished in the outer Solar System, and was also the first on a moon other than Earth's.
Huygens touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. The probe was designed to gather data for a few hours in the atmosphere, and possibly a short time at the surface. It continued to send data for about 90 minutes after touchdown.
Huygens was designed to enter and brake in Titan's atmosphere and parachute a fully instrumented robotic laboratory to the surface. When the mission was planned, it was not yet certain whether the landing site would be a mountain range, a flat plain, an ocean, or something else, and it was thought that analysis of data from Cassini would help to answer these questions.
Based on pictures taken by Cassini above Titan, the landing site appeared to be a shoreline. Assuming the landing site could be non-solid, Huygens was designed to survive the impact, splash down on a liquid surface on Titan, and send back data for several minutes under these conditions. If that occurred it was expected to be the first time a human-made probe would land in an extraterrestrial ocean. The spacecraft had no more than three hours of battery life, most of which was planned to be used during the descent.
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