Mission Salvage

Following up on this story, there's been a positive development from the Huygens probe.

U.S. and European researchers are lauding the effectiveness of a network of ground-based telescopes that has apparently salvaged a wind experiment feared lost during a mission to the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan.

Astronomers were able to use a global group of radio telescopes and a simple signal tone bleated by Europe’s Huygens probe during its Jan. 14 Titan landing to determine the moon’s wind characteristics.

Early analysis of the data has given researchers a good look at the winds of Titan, despite a communications error that prevented the probe’s primary data target – NASA’s Cassini orbiter currently circling Saturn – from receiving wind observations from the Huygens probe.

Not a complete salvage, but much better than nothing.