Crystals survive on mission to Titan

After more than seven years in space, crystal units supplied by C-Mac Frequency Products have been successfully activated on the Huygens Probe en route to Titan.

More than seven years ago, C-Mac Frequency Products delivered a quantity of C6151 (10.000MHz) and C6152 (10.230MHz) crystal units to Alenia Spazio in Rome, Italy.

The parts were used in the probe data relay subsystem (PDRS) for the radio link between the Huygens probe and Cassini spacecraft, to transmit the scientific data collected during the descent on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons.

Cassini-Huygens was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Titan IV-Centaur rocket on 17th October 1997, with the purpose of studying Saturn and its many moons.

After travelling seven years through space (covering 2.2 billion miles), the spacecraft entered orbit around Saturn on 30th June 2004, and the Huygens Probe was released by the Cassini on 25th December 2004, to begin its journey to explore Titan.

In January 2005, as the Huygen's probe descended through Titan's atmosphere, C-Mac's space crystals were activated, enabling the onboard transceiver to successfully transmit hugely important new data and astounding photography, collected by the Huygens Probe, back to earth.

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