It was a voyage of exploration like no other. Intrigued by the similarity of Titan’s atmosphere to that of a primordial Earth, scientists in 1997 sent a probe to Saturn’s largest moon to test its surface for conditions that might harbor life. This fascinating program tells the story of the Cassini-Huygens probe and the engineering team who built it—a group of graduate students, led by researcher John Zernecki, working on a shoestring budget. Despite setbacks and a major last-minute glitch, the endeavor succeeded beyond expectations, yielding remarkable images of Titan’s mountains, rock fields, and seas of liquid methane. With stunning recreations of the probe’s interplanetary trip, the video documents the joint NASA/ESA mission. Produced by the Open University. (60 minutes)
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