There are many reasons to explore the other planets and the smaller bodies in our Solar system. Saturn's largest moon Titan has an atmosphere of nitrogen with carbon compounds and most importantly: it may resemble the Earth as it was before life began. Therefore taking a close look at TitanÕs atmosphere may tell us more about the important steps leading to life on Earth.
This is the third in a series of three programmes on planetary exploration the other 2 being 'Why Explore Other Planets?' and 'ESA's Missions to Mars'. It outlines the Hugens/Cassini mission to Titan, a ESA/NASA project, that was launched in October 1997. It includes footage of its Jupiter swingby and also how it is equipped to land safely on Titan once it reaches the end of its incredibly long journey.
The programme includes an A-roll with split audio and English voiceover, and a B-roll with clean international sound.

10:00:38
With this launch from Cape Canaveral, a very unusual space adventure began. On 15 October 1997 the Cassini/Huygens mission was sent on a seven year long journey to Saturn and its biggest moon Titan.
10:01:04
A joint ESA/NASA mission, with NASA providing the main spacecraft, Cassini, and ESA the Huygens lander, it will make the most distant landing ever attempted on another world. The mission is named after astronomers Jean-Dominique Cassini and Christiaan Huygens who observed Saturn in the 17th century.
10:01:24
Today the spacecraft is well on its way, but it is still more than 500 million kilometres away from its final goal, Saturn, which it will reach in 2004:
10:01:44
In 1980 Saturn was visited by Nasa's Voyager 1. Until today it is the only spacecraft that has flown past Saturn's moon Titan.
10:02:02
The pictures showed only a hazy orange atmosphere. However, the spacecraft's instruments did reveal that Titan has an atmosphere of nitrogen with carbon compounds and most importantly: it