Touchdown on Titan: How we landed a probe on another planet's moon
In 2005, the Huygens probe pierced the shroud of Saturn's moon Titan to reveal a surprisingly Earth-like world.
By
Korey Haynes | Published: Friday, October 19, 2018
The Huygens probe became — and thus far remains — the most distant human-made landing craft when it touched down on Titan’s surface in 2005.
NASA
When the Huygens probe dropped into Titan’s atmosphere January 14, 2005, no one knew what to expect. Would it splash down into a methane ocean? Sink into a tar pit? Crash into sharp rocks or tumble off a ravine? And, most importantly, what manner of world lurked beneath Titan’s thick shroud of haze and clouds?
For landings on Mars or the Moon, mission scientists plotted out landing sites with meticulous care. Telescopes and orbiters scanned the ground, imaging dangerous terrain and safe zones, and flight engineers pored over their maps and planned accordingly.
But Titan was a mystery. Aside from a brief pass by Voyager 1, little was known about Saturn’s largest moon. What the Huygens descent probe would find was anyone’s guess. Huygens had to be prepared for anything.
