# Only two hours of data from Huygens? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116 "2004-12-29T17:09:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/1 "2004-12-29T17:09:11Z")
I was reading [this](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&ncid=676&e=8&u=/usatoday/20041227/ts_usatoday/jan14isasaturndayfortitanmoonprobe) story about the appoach of the Huygens probe to Titan. It is scheduled to land (splash? splush?) into Titan on Jan 14. The most shocking thing I read from the article was this line: > [@](#): > > Scientists hope it will return at least two hours’ worth of photos and data to Cassini overhead. We can only expect two hours worth of data from the Huygens probe? Why? I find it bizarre that we traveled seven years to get there to get two hours worth of data! (Yes, I understand that Huygens is only a small part of the Cassinni mission and that we will be getting data back from Cassinni for years.) Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/2 "2004-12-29T17:23:47Z")
Yep. Sorry. Actually I thought it was more like 3 hours with 2.5 hours of descent and 30 min after landing/splashdown, with considerable uncertainty. But not much different, eh? Well, so, it’s difficult. How do you build an exploring robot if you don’t even know if the surface is solid or liquid or slush? And it’s awful damn hard to get a pound of explorer to that location. But it’s great to be able to profile various things through the atmosphere and get images from so close by. And like you observe, this is only one part of the overall Cassini program. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/3 "2004-12-29T17:25:29Z")
Besides, tomorrow’s winning lottery numbers would only be 5 seconds of data, and you’d really like to get those, right? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/4 "2004-12-29T17:33:25Z")
> [@](#): > > splash? splush? More like KAPOW! Good thing we’re mostly going there for the sake of panspermia. 😉 Seriously, though, since we don’t know how the probe will be received on the surface, we can only count on Huygens’s “float” time. If the chutes work, we’ll probably get a minimum of 2 hours of data. Now inactive and drifting silently through space, once Huygens detects the nitrogen-rich fringes of Titan’s atmosphere, the probe will wake up and if all goes well, parachute to the surface for about 153 minutes. The mother ship Cassini is tasked to have a three-hour listening “window” for this mission, which [includes 30 minutes’ surface time](http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/operations/huygens-mission.cfm), presuming the probe survives. After that, Cassini’s antenna gets pointed back to Earth to relay the data to breathless nerds such as yours truly. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/5 "2004-12-29T18:36:13Z")
> [@El Cid Viscoso](#): > > Seriously, though, since we don’t know how the probe will be received on the surface,… _“Take us to your leader”_ And/or _“Greetings, Earthling”_ Are two possibilities 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/6 "2004-12-29T18:42:44Z")
“Oy! Offa my lawn!” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/7 "2004-12-29T19:04:51Z")
Two hours of data from Titan would still be incredible. I believe that the Titanian environment is going to be quite inhospitable to the craft and rapid deterioration of the transmitter is expected. I’m continually amazed by the quality of the photos, the accuracy of the navigation, and the performance of the spacecraft. [This site](http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.cfm) is one of my daily visits. Well done JPL! ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/8 "2004-12-29T19:24:18Z")
Ale & Ethilrist: If Huygens’s descent is lucky, I was thinking more along the lines of _Sain baina uu_. 😉 > [@](#): > > **I** n [Xanadu](http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEM5A6HHZTD_0.html) did Kubla Khan > A stately pleasure-dome decree : > Where Alph, the sacred river, ran > Through caverns measureless to manDown to a sunless sea. A guy can dream, can’t he? \ ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/9 "2004-12-29T19:32:53Z")
It’s pretty hard keeping something alive that is chilled down to the temperature of liquid methane. That’s the real problem. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/10 "2004-12-29T19:52:29Z")
Also, Huygens talks by line of sight to Cassini. Cassini goes below the horizon shortly after the landing: > [@](#): > > If the probe survives all this, its extended mission will start, consisting in direct characterisation of Titan’s surface for as long as the batteries can power the instruments **and the Cassini orbiter is visible over the horizon** at the landing site, i.e. not more than 130 minutes. [ESA Cassini-Huygens](http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Cassini-Huygens/SEMVR53AR2E_0.html) ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/11 "2004-12-29T21:00:52Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > _“Take us to your leader”_ > > And/or > > _“Greetings, Earthling”_ > > Are two possibilities 😛 With our luck, we’ll get ,“ **EARTH SUXX LOLOLOL!!** ” ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/only-two-hours-of-data-from-huygens/282116/12 "2004-12-30T00:27:28Z")
> [@Balle\_M](#): > > With our luck, we’ll get ,“ **EARTH SUXX LOLOLOL!!** ” Well, that will certainly prove that there´s no intelligent life over there…