Dear Huygens: When you landed on an alien moon, you changed my life
Fourteen years ago today, the spacecraft completed the farthest landing on another world—forever shaping the work of one scientist.
Dear Huygens,
I owe you and your people an apology. Although I was working at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on data from your companion orbiter Cassini at the time, I don’t remember where I was when I saw your first images of Titan.
Truth be told, I paid very little attention to your landing. I remember the day—January 14, 2005—quite vividly, but not because of your accomplishments. At the time, I was dealing with a health problem that would result in surgery a few weeks later, and while trapped in typical Los Angeles traffic leaving the doctor, I found out I’d basically failed the physics GRE, dampening my hopes of going to graduate school and becoming a scientist. I cried
