Huygens Probe from the Cassini MissionThe Huygens probe was launched to Saturn's moon Titan from the Cassini spacecraft. The probe separated from the Cassini orbiter on December 25, 2004, and landed on Titan on January 14, 2005. This was the first landing ever accomplished in the outer solar system. It touched down on land, although the possibility that it would touch down in an ocean was also taken into account in its design. The probe continued to send data for about 90 minutes after reaching the surface.
The probe was 1.3 meters across. It took 2 hours and 28 minutes to descend by parachute through TitanŐs atmosphere, blasted by winds of up to 430 km/h. Once it touched down, Huygens spent another 70 minutes transmitting more data before the Cassini spacecraft moved out of range. The Huygens signal then continued to be received for another 2 hours by a network of radio telescopes on Earth. References: Wiki Huygens Probe Fifth anniversary summary of Huygens.
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