
Huygens Titan Lander - Science Museum, London, UK
N 51° 29.808 W 000° 10.439
30U E 696157 N 5708860
This exhibit, in London's Science Museum, is a replica of the Huygens Titan Lander. The original is now in deep space on Titan, one of Saturn's moons.
Waymark Code: WMF0AJ
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/01/2012
Views: 7
The co-ordinates given are for the main entrance to the
Science Museum in Kensington, London. The replica is in the centre part of the
museum's ground floor level along with other space exhibits. Non-flash
photography is permitted. The museum is free to visit. The museum is open every
day except 24th abd 25th December and opening hours are from 10am to 6pm with
last entry at 5:15pm.
On Jan. 14, 2005, after a seven-year journey through the
Solar System on board the Cassini spacecraft, the European Space Agency's
Huygens probe successfully descended through the atmosphere of Titan, Saturn’s
largest moon.
The exhibit plaque tells us of the 1997 full-sized
model:
"Huygens Titan Lander
This is a full-sized replica of
Huygens. The display shows how it looked touching down on Saturn's moon Titan,
with the last of its three parachues deployed to help it touch down
safely."
The Science Museum website (visit
link) gives a brief overview of the mission:
"The Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its moon
Titan is one of the most ambitious space projects ever undertaken, with more
than four thousand people around the world involved. It was launched in 1997 and
reached Saturn in 2004 after a 3.2-billion-kilometre journey. Cassini went into
orbit around Saturn while the Huygens lander descended through Titan’s
atmosphere, which is thought to be similar to that of the very early
Earth.
The display shows how Huygens looked touching down on
Titan, with the last of its three parachutes deployed to help it touch down
safely.
The first man-made object to touch the surface was a
small instrument, like one displayed nearby, protruding from the underside of
Huygens. It measured how much the lander slowed down on impact and its findings
suggested that part of Titan’s surface is like frosty, crumbly
sand."