General Information
These reports appear in the last Thursday of the month (before our monthly meeting held on the first Thursday of the month) editions of the 'Clacton Gazzette' and 'Essex Evening Standard' in their 'Neighbourhood News' sections
The Huygen's Mission to Titan by Jerry Workman
At the November 5th meeting of the CDAA, we had Special Guest Jerry Workman giving a presentation entitled 'The Huygen's Mission to Titan'. He began by briefly speaking about the Cassini Mission which had been planned to finish in July 2008 but has now been extended to 2017 but then focused upon Saturn's moon Titan. Before the Cassini Mission almost nothing was known about this large moon other than the fact that, uniquely (for a moon) in the solar system, it had a thick atmosphere. The Huygens probe mounted on the Cassini spacecraft was released so as to enter Titan's atmosphere and parachute to the surface. During the 2hr 18min decent, photographs and scientific measurements were taken. These revealed a terrain of what appeared to be cliffs, valleys, plains (or lakes) and drainage channels. There had been little confidence in the Lander's success and so a lack of preparation provided only one image of the surface from the landing site itself. The orbiting Cassini spacecraft has since been radar mapping Titan's surface and many images of the terrain from this survey were presented.
The Next Meeting
Our next meeting to be held on 3rd December 2009, has the 'Annual Quiz' hosted by our secretary, David Pugh The meeting will be held as usual at the 'Friends Meeting House' in Granville Road, Clacton. Please note that new members and visitors are always welcome at these meetings. Visitors are very welcome but are charged a fee of £2.00.