ESA Describes European Space Probe's Mission As Successful
Posted on: Saturday, 15 January 2005, 09:00 CST
ESA describes European space probe's mission as successful
PARIS, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- The mission of the European built space probe Huygens on Titan is "a scientific success," announced Friday Jean-Jacques Dordain, general director of the European Space Agency (ESA).
"Cassini (spaceship) started to send scientific datum registered by the probe Huygens as its final descent towards Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, on Friday," said Dordain at a news conference.
"This is a fantastic success for Europe," he declared.
After an interplanetary trip of more than seven years, the probe Huygens landed earlier Friday on the surface of Saturn's moon Titan. Its registering datum and transmitting them to the Earth via the mother spacecraft Cassini marked the success of this mission, he said.
The Cassini-Huygens mission, a joint project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency, was launched on Oct. 15, 1997 from Cape Canaveral, in Florida to study Saturn, its rings and moons.
Huygens was separated from its mother ship Cassini on Dec. 25 after a seven-year journey to begin its free-fall towards Titan.
Named after the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, the probe' s final descent towards Titan started at 1013 GMT on Friday, the core of today's mission. During the descending process of two hours and a half, it was to film Titan's surface, measure wind speed and pressure and analyze the atmosphere as it descends to the surface.
The probe is expected to explore Titan's atmosphere and find out if it has the cold seas of liquid methane and ethane presumed by scientists. The project costs a total of 3.2 billion US dollars, or 2.46 billion euros. Never a space engine has succeeded in landing at a place so faraway from the Earth.
Titan was chosen for the mission since it is the only moon in the Solar System that has a substantial atmosphere.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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