NOVA

"Voyage to the Mystery Moon"

Tuesday, April 4, 2006 8 - 9:00 pm ET

Chronicling a bold voyage of discovery -- the Cassini/Huygens
mission to Saturn and its enigmatic moon Titan -- this program
delivers awe-inspiring images of these fascinating planetary
bodies nearly a billion miles from Earth. (CC, Stereo, DVI)

Listen online to what the Huygens probe recorded during its
nail-biting descent through Titan's atmosphere and find out how
space sounds differ from those on Earth.

http://www.pbs.org/nova/titan

Next on NOVA: "Voyage to the Mystery Moon"

http://www.pbs.org/nova/titan

Broadcast: Tuesday, April 4, 2006 at 8 p.m. ET/PT

(NOVA airs Tuesdays on PBS at 8 p.m. Check your local listings as
dates and times may vary.)

Chronicling a bold voyage of discovery -- the Cassini/Huygens
mission to Saturn and its enigmatic moon Titan -- NOVA's "Voyage to
the Mystery Moon" delivers striking images of these fascinating
planetary bodies nearly a billion miles from Earth. Saturn's broad
rings hold myriad mysteries, and Titan, whose soupy atmosphere is
similar to the one that enshrouded our planet billions of years ago,
may hold clues to the origins of life. In hopes of answering some
long-standing astrophysical questions, teams from NASA and the
European Space Agency gamble years of effort to both ease the
Cassini spacecraft into a workable orbit around Saturn and land the
Huygens probe on Titan's never-before-seen surface.

Here's what you'll find on the companion Web site:

INTERVIEW & ARTICLE

Life on a Tiny Moon?
Saturn's water-spewing moon Enceladus has suddenly become target
#1 in the search for life beyond Earth, says astrophysicist
Carolyn Porco.


How to Get an Atmosphere
Only four planets or moons with solid bodies -- Earth, Mars,
Venus, and Titan -- have substantial atmospheres. Why?


AUDIO & INTERACTIVE

Sounds of Titan
Hear the first-ever audio recording from one billion miles away,
and find out what makes sounds in space different from those
on Earth.


Anatomy of the Rings
Images sent back from Cassini are resolving age-old mysteries
about Saturn's rings.

Also, Links & Books, the Teacher's Guide, the program transcript,
and more.


http://www.pbs.org/nova/titan

I just saw the documentary "Titan – A Place Like Home?", that apparently aired on the BBC last year. This was essentially the same thing as the Nova program, with a few key differences. The Nova program was much more comprehensive with the entire Cassini mission, and because of that, a lot of the detailed explanations in the Horizons program were cut out. The Horizons program was much better put together, telling more cohesive story without repeating the same computer generated graphics and negative images (like those of a basaltic lava flow made to look like a cryolava flow) ad nauseum. The Horizons program focused more on Huygens and its results at Titan, which allowed the story to make a lot more sense. In the Nova program, the backstory to the mission, the prelaunch/pre-arrival stuff seemed to cover too much of the program, leaving too little room for science. In the Horizons program, since the story focused more on Huygens, the backstory didn't feel so overwelming. The added time not lost to the rings or Enceladus (or the added Cassini stuff), also allowed for more detailed and coherent explanations for Huygens trials and tribulations, plus better explanations on Titan. This was lost in the Nova program, making it seem more like a showcase for the CGI rather than for the science or the people and the spacecraft behind the science.

The original Horizons program was on the Discovery Channel IIRC so perhaps those who missed this nova program can catch the original, and IMHO better, version there.

I wasn't all that impressed with the NOVA program myself. As you mentioned, and was mentioned in Emily's Planetary Society Blog, there was a lot of use of graphics that was confusing... the uninformed viewer would assume it was real stuff, but it was mostly CGI and "other".

Normally I'm a big fan of NOVA, but this one really left me scratching my head wondering what they were thinking when they did it.

Is it unreasonable to call this manipulating the data to make it look like preconceptions of what the moon should look like? Or are these basaltic flows from other places? Who is making these type of editing decisions? I missed the NOVA presentation, but my carpool did not. They don't follow Titan closely, and thought it was very good. Are we going for the warm fuzzy here, or looking for answers to hard questions?

It's that hard balance between education and entertainment to keep the
viewers, especially the non-space buff crowd - and it all has to be done
in less than sixty minutes.

You don't have to throw an entire encyclopedia of knowledge at once
at those you are trying to inform - indeed, it is often better not to, unless
you want to overwhelm and turn them off. If those novices who viewed
this program and others like it are interested in learning more, they
will do so.