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To: Brett66

Yeah, I don't get that. Maybe one of the rovers we sent up could go over and turn the thing around for us?


10 posted on 01/18/2005 11:01:03 AM PST by MarkeyD (<a href="http://www.johnkerry.com">Loser</a>)
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To: MarkeyD

Apparently Titan has one of the largest scotch reserves in all of the solar system.


12 posted on 01/18/2005 11:03:09 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (60 votes and the world changes.)
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To: MarkeyD
Yeah, I don't get that.

Building a probe involves tradeoffs. (And remember this probe was designed during the Reagan and Bush 1 Administrations, when you consider the technology, and built during the Bush 1 and Clinton Administrations.)

They don't have a rotating camera. It's fixed. The whole thing spun while descending so it could photograph all around it without the extra machinery of a rotating camera. Unfortunately that meant it could only take pics on direction while on the ground.

Huygens was tacked on to another probe, Cassini. Much of the weight for Huygens was the heat shield; they could only fit so much stuff on.

Of course, if money wasn't been flushed down the toilet on the International Space Station, etc. we probably could have a specific Titan Orbiter with radar surface mapping, a Titan Rover, etc. by now.

20 posted on 01/18/2005 11:14:49 AM PST by Strategerist
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