Impressions from Descent event in Salzburg

On the occasion of the landing of Huygens probe on Saturn moon Titan, the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) attracts an extraordinary number of visitors and makes this one of Europe’s biggest Huygens space events. 

Dr. Pascal Gilles (ESA Cyrosat Manager), DI Norbert Frischauf (BAH/Austrian Space Forum), Mag. Gernot Grömer (Univ. Innsbruck/Austrian Space Forum) and DI Eugen Reichel (EADS) enchanted the audience with an exceptional evening. The event was presented by Mag. Alexander Soucek (ESA/Austrian Space Forum) in co-operation with the well-known Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation news frontman Dr. Hans-Georg Heinke.

After a series of introductory presentations about the Saturn system and the Cassini-Huygens mission, a welcome address from the representive of the government of the state of Salzburg, Dr. Erwin Buchinger and several emotional multimedia shows, the evening culminated in three teleconferences: Thomas Kronberger (Univ. of Innsbruck/Austrian Space Forum) summarized the series of events of the preceeding days, followed by a welcome statement of the representative of the Austrian federal government, Mag. Eduard Mainoni live from the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt. DI Bobby Kazeminjad (Institute of Space Research, Graz/Austrian Space Forum) gave a live report from the control rooms of the ESA ground control establishment in germany.

Approximately at 22:00 the first images from the surface of Titan were received – Dr. Pascal Gilles and Mag. Gernot Grömer commented the pictures in front of a thrilled and enthusiastic audience.

“Given the enourmous complexity of the Cassini-Huygens mission and the many unknown conditions when entering a new world, in addition to all technical foresight, the mission planners were really lucky”,

said Mag. Gernot Groemer.

“Descent 01/05 is certainly to be considered as one of the most succesful events of the Austrian Space Forum”,

Mag. Alexander Soucek added,

“although we were completely sold out already a day before the event, we had more than 300 additional interested people who were eager to attend.”

Email-commentaries from spectators speak for themselves:

“Honestly, I have to admit that I was more than enthusiastic and all my expectations were superseeded. The three hours passed on the fly and on behalf of my entire family, I would like to extend my sincere congratulations for this evening and the well-done presentation of a complex technical topic.”

Or, citing a visitor from Braunau/Upper Austria:

“Congratulations and my deepest respect for th perfect organisation! If you ever intend to present a similar event, I sincerely hope to be able to participate again.”

We would like to say a big thank you for all the excellent co-operation with other entities, especially the European Space Agency, the Austrian federal ministry for traffic, innovation and technology, the state of Salzburg, the museum “Haus der Natur”, the Salzburg working group for astronomy and public observatory, Austrian Aerospace, gcs Salzburg, Blizzard Ski, Vitaclub Salzburg, Kronenzeitung Salzburg, Radio Antenne Salzburg, ORF Salzburg, the astronomy-magazine Star Observer, the team of the “Republic” hall, and all volunteers who have contributed to a marvellous evening.

1st picture from Huygens probe of Titans surface (c) ESA

Huygens probe descending to Titan’s surface. Pictures were taken from 4 different altitudes. (c) ESA/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona

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