DARMSTADT, Germany -- Europe's Huygens probe has successfully negotiated its descent to the surface of Saturn's mysterious moon, Titan, with its experiments switched on and continuing to collect data for two hours after its landing on what is probably a hard surface, Huygens program managers said.
"We have a scientific success,'' European Space Agency (ESA) Director-General said in a press briefing. "We will now be able to start breaking Titan's secrets."
Originally expected to send perhaps 2.5 hours worth of data to the NASA's Cassini orbiter for later delivery to Earth, Huygens was still sending signals five hours after activation, and researchers said the probe's robust battery could last up to seven hours total.
Huygens has also been sending limited data directly to Earth, where it has been picked up by a network of telescopes. The detailed data about what it found on its way through Titan's thick atmosphere has been sent to NASA's Cassini orbiter overhead.
Mission managers have reported only one single glitch in Huygens' data return. A redundant transmission channel is apparently not working properly, but only one of the probe's six instruments - a Doppler tool to study Titan's winds - is dependent solely on that channel and may be compensated for by data from ground-based observations, mission scientists said.
NASA's Cassini orbiter has also sent an initial data set of its own to ground teams. It will be several hours more before scientists decipher this information. But the mission has already cleared several of its biggest hurdles and has demonstrated enough to be declared a major event in the history of space science.
"This is a historic event," ESA Science Director David Southwood said. "The torch has now been passed from the engineers who delivered the probe and got the data sent to Cassini to the scientists who will evaluate the data."
Choking back tears, NASA Associated Administrator Al Diaz, who worked on the Cassini-Huygens mission for years before taking up his current post, said "It's up to ESA to take this data and turn it into science."
Diaz and Dordain embraced after they learned that Huygens' initial data was received by Cassini and ground telescopes confirming the initial success of the mission.
Touchdown on Titan: Huygens Probe Hits its Mark
SPACE.com Special Report: Cassini-Huygens at Saturn and Titan
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.
