Update: Huygens Heads for Titan

It was confirmed by telemetry from Cassini received by NASAs Deep Space Network tracking stations in Madrid, Spain and Goldstone, California, at 3.24 am GMT (7.24 pm PST) that separation had occurred. A pre-programmed sequence of commands activated a spring ejection device which sent Huygens gently spinning away from Cassini at a relatively slow spin rate of 7 revolutions per minute and a separation speed of 30cm per second.

At this moment all electronic communication links between the Cassini orbiter and Huygens were cut off as planned. Communication with the probe will not resume until it reaches the top of Titans atmosphere at about 0907 GMT on 14th January with the first communication with ground control stations on Earth, via Cassini, expected mid afternoon on the 14th.

Professor John Zarnecki from the Open University, Milton Keynes, is Principal Investigator for the Surface Science Package on Huygens this will be the first of the Huygens instruments that will directly measure the properties of Titans surface.

Commenting from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where he spent the night anxiously waiting for news, he said, What a fantastic Christmas present - it is tremendous that the separation has been successful and we are on our way to Titan. It will now be a very long couple of weeks of waiting before we get any signal to indicate whether the entry and descent has been successful. Having worked on this mission for some 15 years it is a little surreal to think that we are just a couple of weeks away from carrying out scientific investigations on this distant moon that resembles primordial Earth.

Professor Ian Halliday, Chief Executive of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the UK agency responsible for space science, said: "It is great to hear that the Huygens separation has been successful. This mission has been along time coming having left the launch pad some 7 years ago. It is a tribute to the dedication of the scientists and engineers involved that all their hard work has paid off. I look forward to 14th January with great anticipation and to the science data that we are set to receive from this mysterious moon."

Before the descent and arrival phase one further critical manoeuvre needs to take place - the adjustment to the course of Cassini which is currently, like Huygens, on a crash course with Titan. This manoeuvre, set to occur on 28th December 2004, will ensure that the Cassini orbiter steers away from Titan and flies by on the correct trajectory to be able to receive data from Huygens.

Source: PPARC