|
|
 |
|
|
| NASA - Huygens Probe Mission - Decent Camera |
 |
This movie, built with data collected during
the European Space Agency's Huygens probe on
Jan. 14, 2005, shows the operation of the
Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer camera
during its descent and after touchdown. The
camera was funded by NASA.
The almost four-hour-long operation of the
camera is shown in less than five minutes.
That's 40 times the actual speed up to
landing and 100 times the actual speed
thereafter.
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.
The scientists analyzed Huygens' speed,
direction of motion, rotation and swinging
during the descent. The movie includes
sidebar graphics that show:
(Lower left corner) Huygens' trajectory views
from the south, a scale bar for comparison to
the height of Mount Everest, colored arrows
that point to the sun and to the Cassini
orbiter.
(Top left corner) A close-up view of the
Huygens probe highlighting large and
unexpected parachute movements, a scale bar
for comparison to human height.
(Lower right corner) A compass that shows the
changing direction of view as Huygens
rotates, along with the relative positions of
the sun and Cassini.
(Upper right corner) A clock that shows
Universal Time for Jan. 14, 2005 (Universal
Time is 7 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight
Time). Above the clock, events are listed in
mission time, which starts with the
deployment of the first of the three
parachutes.
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.
The Huygens probe was delivered to Saturn's
moon Titan by the Cassini spacecraft, which
is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. NASA supplied
two instruments on the probe, the descent
imager/spectral radiometer and the gas
chromatograph mass spectrometer.
Tags : NASA space science Huygens Saturn moon Titan Cassini spacecraft |
|
Affichage : 4310
Durée : 289 s |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
