14/01/2005 2:30:08 pm
Another Big Step for Mankind? In two hours from now, the Hyugens probe - the size of a Volkswagen car - from the European Space Agency will land on the surface of Titan, Saturn?s largest moon - after a journey that has lasted seven years. Why has it been sent there? Here is a reply from Jonathan Lunine of the University of Arizona:
"If Titan were in orbit around the sun, it would have been a major target of solar system exploration, possibly before Cassini. And I say that because it?s a body the size of a planet (larger than Mercury), which has a dense atmosphere of nitrogen and methane. And so, if we were to look at it in the sky, we would say: Hey, here is a planet that has a dense atmosphere. The Earth has a dense atmosphere. Venus has a dense atmosphere, but it?s hot enough to melt lead. Mars may have had a dense atmosphere in the past, but it?s cold and tenuous now. If we want to explore a planet in the solar system which is somewhat like the Earth, [Titan is] the place to go."
Space exploration would have been much more efficient, cheap and creative had it been run by private companies in the free market. But when the governmental agencies of NASA and ESA manage to take steps like this, it is worth a great deal of interest. What will they find out? What implications will their conclusions have for our knowledge of the universe and of our own planet?


A drawing of the landscape that is expected to surround the landing.
Watch the web cast from Titan here - >