20 years ago, on January 14, 2005, the Huygens probe, carried into the Saturn system by the Cassini spacecraft, landed on the surface of Titan, the largest Kronian satellite, after a 2.5-hour parachute descent.
Launched in 1997, after 7.5 years of interplanetary travel, the Cassini-Huygens space mission will last 13 years in orbit around Saturn. It will reveal an extremely complex planet-satellite-ring system with unique dynamic processes and couplings. Huygens will demonstrate the exceptional capabilities of the European Space Agency and European laboratories in terms of Solar System exploration. To this day, Huygens remains the only spacecraft to have landed on a satellite other than the Moon, and the furthest landing in the Solar System. During this 3-day symposium, we’ll discuss the genesis and discoveries of this major international mission (ESA, NASA, ASI) in terms of science and technological prowess, but we’ll also look to the future with the space agencies’ ever more ambitious programs for a return to Titan, but also to Enceladus, Saturn’s other satellite with extraordinary features.
We’ll see how our knowledge of Titan and Enceladus, and of ice satellites in general, was forever revolutionized by this mission, which is still cited today by all space agencies and experts as an example of international collaboration, scientific harvest and inspiration for generations to come.

PRELIMINARY SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM

– Cassini-Huygens: genesis, development, collaborations, instruments
– Cassini-Huygens: trajectory, arrival, orbiter exploration - first scientific results
– Huygens: landing, first images and emotions
– Huygens: the scientific results of 3.5 hours of in situ “ground truth” exploration
– Cassini: 13 years of fabulous discoveries
– The Cassini-Huygens legacy : Dragonfly
– Future projects (Voyage 2050, Decadal OWL, etc.)

SPEAKERS
Mission genesis, science and instruments : W. Ip, D. Strobel, J-P Lebreton, M. Coradini, J. Zarnecki, J. Lunine, F. Raulin, B. Bézard, R. Courtin, A. Coustenis, M. Flasar, C. Sotin, L. Spilker, Th. Gautier, W. Ip...

– ESA representatives: Carole Mundell, O. Witasse, N. Altobelli
– CNES representatives: F. Rocard, etc.
– JPL representatives
– Representatives from other space agencies
– Industry representatives