Huygens (spacecraft)
Huygens (spacecraft)
The combined Cassini–Huygens spacecraft was launched from Earth on 15 October 1997. Huygens separated from the Cassini orbiter on 25 December 2004, and landed on Titan on 14 January 2005 near the Adiri region). Huygens's landing is so far the only one accomplished in the outer Solar System and on a moon other than Earth's.
Huygens (spacecraft)
Huygens touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. The probe was designed to gather data for a few hours in the atmosphere, and possibly a short time at the surface. It continued to send data for about 90 minutes after touchdown.
Overview
Huygens was designed to enter and brake in Titan's atmosphere and parachute a fully instrumented robotic laboratory to the surface. When the mission was planned, it was not yet certain whether the landing site would be a mountain range, a flat plain, an ocean, or something else, and it was thought that analysis of data from Cassini would help to answer these questions.
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