Mission to Titan

Episode
Mission to Titan Ep1
Broadcast Info
2005 (59 mins)
Description
Live coverage from Mission Control in Germany of today’s extraordinary attempt to land Europe’s Huygens probe on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons and described as the most earth-like object in the solar system. Adam Hart-Davis and Dr Lucie Green are with the British space scientists who have spent 17 years on the mission, hoping their instruments will perform for just 2 hours as the probe parachutes to the previously-hidden surface of Titan. It will be the most distant landing ever attempted.
During the descent, cameras on Huygens will take the first pictures of this strange world, and instruments will record details of the atmosphere. On impact, the Open University’s Surface Science Package will have just minutes to work out what the surface is like - solid ice, slush, or a sea of liquid methane are just some of the possibilities. The Cassini mothership will then rotate its antenna to earth and transmit the information. The signal will take 90 minutes to cover the 1.2 billion miles, and Hart-Davis and the team will be there as pictures arrive during the evening, and the scientists wait to see if their probe, launched in 1997, survives the landing.
Because Titan has an atmosphere like that of the early Earth, scientists hope that exploring Titan might reveal how conditions fit for life could have developed here.

Titan landing Saturn’s moons surface pictures Cassini mothership
Genre
Science; Astronomy

How to cite this record

The Open University, "Mission to Titan". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/6947 (Accessed 11 Jan 2025)