ABOUT THE PROJECT

The aim of the project is to study the aerodynamic of Huygens probe to understand its behaviour during its descent on Saturn's moon Titan.

Why this project?

During its descent on Titan, the Huygens probe appeared to spin in the clockwise direction whereas it was expected to spin in the anti-clockwise direction. After many studies, results seemed to lead to the appendages being responsible of this behavior. These appendages are instruments such as the HASI (Huygens Atmsopheric Structure Instrument) or radar altimeter atennae.

Who are we?

The group is composed of two students (Julien Simier and Guillaume Thebault) in final year and three students (Armand Béraud, Simon Couche and César de Tienda) in fourth year of engineering studies. We progress with the advice and help of two academic supervisors (Annie Leroy and Philippe Devinant) and an technical supervisor (Jean-Pierre Lebreton).