What Will Huygens Discover About Titan's Mysterious Atmosphere?

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The Huygens probe, released from the Cassini spacecraft, is on a three-week descent toward Titan, Saturn's largest moon, to investigate its atmosphere and potential liquid methane and ethane lakes. Titan is unique as the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere, which is 1.5 times thicker than Earth's and rich in nitrogen and methane. The probe's instruments are expected to provide insights into Titan's chemical composition and surface conditions. There is optimism about Huygens' durability, with expectations that it may exceed its estimated operational lifespan upon landing. Anticipation is building for the first images and data to be transmitted back from Titan.
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PASADENA, Calif. -- A probe once attached to the international Cassini spacecraft was on its own Saturday for the first time, headed on a slow, tumbling course into the hazy atmosphere of Saturn's planet-size moon Titan.

The European Space Agency's Huygens probe carried instruments that may reveal more about the moon's chemistry and whether Titan actually has lakes or seas of liquid methane and ethane that have been theorized by scientists.

Cassini used springs to gently push the 705-pound probe away late Friday at a rate of one foot per second, sending it on a three-week free-fall toward Titan.

Cassini will make a course change next week to avoid following the probe into the moon's atmosphere.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system known to have a significant atmosphere. Rich with nitrogen and containing about 6 percent methane, the atmosphere is 1 1/2 times thicker than Earth's.
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go Huygens!
 
NASA lowballed the durability of the last two Mars landers, saying that they were only expected to operate for 100 days. I hope they are doing the same when they downplay the possibility that Huygens will operate all the way down to the surface of Titan. A 15 m.p.h. impact is predicted, according to the newspaper.
 
It's a rather standard policy in space agencies to build probes to last an estimated amount of time and then take a smaller fraction of that time to qualify if a mission is "successful" or not. I'm sure Huygens was built on the same principle: assuming something ghastly doesn't happen to its parachute etc it'll be fine.
Can't wait for the pictures myself! Anyone know around what time they'll start coming in yet?
 

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