Titan's surface

It was great news

Just found out it had a mic onboard
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/huygens_alien_winds_descent.mp3

Yesterday was a wonderful day, not just for those of us who are interested in this sort of thing, but for the whole of humanity, really.

First of all, we had the first glimpses of a new and strange world (the latest pictures this afternoon are truly stunning!); secondly, we had the successful culmination of almost 20 years' work by hundreds of people (from all countries and cultures, one should add); thirdly, it was a stunning technological achievement - Huygens' signal was no stronger than that of a mobile phone (although the signals from Saturn to Earth were admittedly transmitted via the more powerful Cassini) and the probe was completely autonomous - scientists had no opportunity to influence it in any way once it had started its descent on Xmas day.

Finally, it shows that Europe and the USA can work together.

I stayed up all night looking at the various websites - it was the most exciting thing to happen, well, since Voyager 2 back in the 1980s, I guess.

Kevin

Wonderful news indeed, hopefully there will be even more spectacular images to come. The news coverage has actually been quite impressive much to my surprise.

I'm missing my borrowed Meade LX90 even more now!

Jonathan

So Joe, a crystal in the head and a blow job from a sexy alien next then.

Simon

I confess that after having looked forward to this for such a long time I thought when I saw the first couple of pictures "Wow. Seven years and yet another dull place covered in stones". It's looking superb now though as the rest of the images come in. I felt quite creepy as I heard the sound from the surface.

Cool MP3, may have to put it on my IPod.
Wonder what sample rate they used?
What would it have sounded like if they let Naim do the electronics?
I was waiting for the inevitable "Take me to your leader," thinking it might be a spoof.
Wild, wild stuff, isn't it??!!
David

quote:

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What would it have sounded like if they let Naim do the electronics?

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Naimdropper

I don't think that Naim is in the business of designing space qualified electronics that work at extreme temperatures of -180 celsius and in radiation hard environments.

They would be quite right of course not to, unless they wanted to enter into another niche market

I wonder if space science technology could bring benefits into the audio industry like it has done with medicine and many other areas.

Regards
Mark

LoFiSi,

A DVD of Liquid Sky would be nice - I only hace a d/l rip

DS

*** And all the little children said "Nang Nang Nang ***

It could be the start of a new craze - ringtones from space.

Steve B

It's no wonder aliens never want to come to this star system - most of it's so boring. Either that or a lot of these 'missions' are using the same TV studio and scenery in Southern Cal .

Seriously, well done to all involved.

Tim

I'm looking forwards to the Mel Gibson biopic showing the technological triumphs of the NASA mission that put the first lander onto Titan.

Those nerds like me that have a telescope ( ETX 90-EC to be precise ) may well have seen how good saturn looks right now - top views of the rings and the tiny pinpricks of light that are her moons.

Regards

Mike

Spending money I don't have on things I don't need.

I'm sure that if Naim did the electronics, we'd hear the "slam" when the thing landed...
David

Can't be bothered to try and find websites, I'll just wait for the Michael Palin DVD and book to come out.