spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


Huygens passes communications test
Posted: Wed, Nov 28, 2001, 10:13 AM ET (1513 GMT)
Cassini and Huygens at Titan (NASA) ESA and NASA engineers said Tuesday that they believe that Huygens will be able to meet all its scientific objectives after the probe passed a communications test this month. Five days of tests were conducted in mid-November to test the communications like between Huygens and Cassini, simulating Huygens' descent into the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan. Engineers said that even under the worst case scenario Huygens will be able to return all the data collected during its descent and for at least 15 minutes on the surface. Concerns about Huygens were raised last year when engineers found that the probe's communications system did not properly compensate for Doppler shifts, causing much of the data to be lost. Since then ESA and NASA have changed plans for Huygens' release, increasing the altitude of Cassini's flyby of Titan during Huygens' descent to reduce the magnitude of the Doppler shift.
Related Links:
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
CesiumAstro raises $730 million
Posted: Sat, Nov 7 12:14 PM ET (1714 GMT)

AST SpaceMobile plans new rocket using Firefly engines
Posted: Sat, Nov 7 12:10 PM ET (1710 GMT)

Blue Origin announces new upper stage and engine for New Glenn
Posted: Sat, Nov 7 12:07 PM ET (1707 GMT)

news links
Sunday, November 8


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list