References

97. W.I. McLaughlin, "Cassini's Progress", Spaceflight, October 1992, pp. 389-390.
98. "Huygens Award", Aviation Week and Space Technology, 4 October 1993, p. 15.
99. P.B. de Selding, "ESA Plant To Trim Huygens Price as Construction Begins", Space News, 2-8 May 1994, p.14.
100. B.A. Smith, "Cassini on Track For Integration Tests", Aviation Week and Space Technology, 24 April 1995, pp. 58-59.
101. "La Sonde Huygens Devra Resister A 2,000°C", Air & Cosmos, 2 June 1995, pp. 40-41.
102. Annual Report, ESA, 1993, p. 32 and 1994, p. 27.
103. ESA's Report to the 28th COSPAR Meeting, op. cit., pp. 75-82.
Adapted from: Europe and Asia in Space 1993-1994, Nicholas Johnson and David Rodvold [Kaman Sciences / Air Force Phillips Laboratory]

Cassini/Huygens

ESA's next solar system exploration program will be directed toward the outer reaches of the solar system: Saturn's moon Titan. The US-ESA Cassini/Huygens mission will place the first artificial satellite in orbit around Saturn and the first man-made probe in the atmosphere of Titan. ESA's 375-kg 2.7-m diameter Huygens atmospheric vehicle (aka theM1 mission) is scheduled to encounter the distant moon in late November, 2004, after alaunch with Cassini by a Titan 4 booster inOctober, 1997, and gravity assists by Venus(2), Earth, and Jupiter. During 1994 Huygens' heat shield of 160 tiles of silica fibers, designed to with stand entry temperatures up to 2,000 degrees C, was being carefully fabricated.

A complement of six major instruments will be in operation during the 3-hour atmospheric descent: Aerosol Collector and Pyrolyzer(ACP), Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer(DISR), Doppler Wind Experiment (OWE), Gas Chromatograph Neutral Mass Spectrometer(GCMS), Huygens Atmospheric Structure Instrument (HASI), and Surface Science Package (SSP). If the probe survives the impact on Titan, battery life will probably severely limit the amount of subsequent information which may be returned. The prime contractor for Huygens is Aerospatiale (References 97-103).

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References

Cassini/Huygens