Voyage to the Mystery Moon

00:00:05 Saturn

00:02:30 and Saturn's mysterious rings were seen closer than ever before.

00:04:15 Could Titan play a unique role in helping us understand the origin of life on Earth?

00:06:15 from NASA's launch site at Cape Canaveral, Florida, through a hoop in ESA's command center in Germany

00:08:25 Every aspect of the super sensitive probe's design and construction must be put to the test.

00:10:37 This device called a penetrometer, will measure the force of first contact.

00:13:13 Cassini will need to return for a second boost from Venus.

00:15:44 directly back to the Earth.

00:17:34 It was enough to, essentially, put the link between the two out of alignment.

00:19:44 Cassini's cameras face their biggest test yet.

00:21:53 But this time Phoebe is in the cross hairs of Cassini's powerful cameras.

00:24:08 ranging in size from a grain of sugar to a large house.

00:26:28 The press gathers at JPL for news of the most critical part of the seven-year trek across the solar system.

00:29:36 The rings are made of ice, just like the stuff you've got in your ice cube trays

00:32:04 its encounter with Titan, Saturn's mystery moon.

00:34:52 For years, scientists have been looking for a place that has a similar primordial chemistry to early Earth.

00:37:13 Now, operating on automatic, one minor malfunction can terminate the whole operation.

00:39:32 The radio signal from Huygens is too weak to relay any scientific data.

00:42:06 If the haze continues all the way to the ground

00:44:16 and it jumped up in such a way that there must have been, underneath this warm probe

00:46:34 The orbiter has been unveiling Titan in, in its own very special way.

00:48:44 and flowing down the flanks of this volcano, much like a very, very fast glacier.

00:50:44 This suggests that pockets of water may be just beneath the moon's surface