transmitting data © ESA 2001.
Illustration by Medialab (click to enlarge)
Huygens flawlessly carried out its deep space mission to the surface of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, earlier this year. SciSys developed and maintained the Mission Control System that has been used to monitor the health of Huygens, control it during its interplanetary journey, and receive the invaluable images and scientific data that Huygens transmitted back to Earth.
Huygens was a European Space Agency (ESA) probe carried to Titan by NASA's Cassini spacecraft which was launched in 1997. Huygens separated from Cassini on Christmas Day 2004 and on 14 January 2005 began its pioneering 153 minutes descent into Titan's thick atmosphere. Instruments on-board took breath-taking images and made measurements of Titan's atmosphere before it made a soft landing on the surface where it continued to transmit for 70 minutes - much longer than expected.
appears to be a coastline on Titan
© ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
(click to enlarge)
SciSys has been involved in Huygens for 10 years, originally as part of the team that developed the Mission Control System. SciSys was responsible for the support and maintenance of this system which is located at ESOC throughout the Huygens mission. SciSys also supported the spacecraft simulator, used to help prepare for each mission phase, and provided staff to the mission's operations team.
The Mission Control System was developed to prepare and validate commands and monitor the probe during its entire life. It communicated with Huygens via the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, and Cassini, the mother ship which has been successfully orbiting Saturn since the summer of 2004.
The Mission Control System is still being used to process and perform detailed analysis of the fascinating images and science data received from Titan.
