TITLE: Huygens
NAME: Patrick Lagace
COUNTRY: Canada
EMAIL: lagp@quebectel.com
TOPIC: Physics & Math
COPYRIGHT: I SUBMIT TO THE STANDARD RAYTRACING COMPETITION COPYRIGHT.
JPGFILE: huygens.jpg
ZIPFILE: huygens.zip
RENDERER USED: 
    POV-Ray Version 3.01.watcom.win32

TOOLS USED: 
    Paint Shop Pro, 3DS3, 3DS2POV

RENDER TIME: 
    1hr 23min 23sec

HARDWARE USED: 
    Pentium 90, 32MB Ram

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: 
    On november 27 2004, 21 days after being release from
the Cassini spacecraft, the probe Huygens will start it's descent toward
the surface of Titan, the biggest moon orbiting Saturn. At a speed of 18000
km/h we see the probe starting it's entry into the thick atmosphere of Titan.
Huygens is protect from the intense heat by a large spherical sheild who will
be release later when the probe slows down to around 400 m/s. At that time a 
parachute will open to let the probe gently land on the moon.  Huygens' 
mission is to bring us back many scientific elements from one of the most 
mysterious world in the solar system. 

For me, throught all the things physics and Math has brought to us, the 
exploration of space is the ultimate achivement.  When I saw that the next 
topic of the competition would be Physics & Math the first thing I thought 
was to do an image about space exploration. But what ? Well I could have done
an image of one of the many probes and spacecrafts from the past, present or 
futur but this one has a kind special connotation that goes really well with 
this theme. 
#If you really want to know more just read "Why Huygens ?" at the the bottom 
of the page. 
#Else I don't want to bother you much longer ;)


DESCRIPTION OF HOW THIS IMAGE WAS CREATED: 
    Althought it's note a very
complexe image, I try to recreate with a certain degree of precision, and 
artistic impression, what the sight might be when the probe plunge into the 
atmophere of Titan.  

The image is mostly compose of emitting halos made in POV-Ray which includes 
the Milky Way (top right), the sun, the burning atmosphere surrounding the 
probe and the moon Titan. 
The starfield map and the probe were created in 3DS. (Used 3DS2POV for the 
later one) 
The texture of the moons Rhea and Dione are actually an image map of our own 
moon with a reddish tint added to it. (That's pretty much what those moons 
look like).
For Saturn I made my own texture based on NASA's photos.
The rings of Saturn are discs shapes. Each one having there own texture and 
transparency.(here I tried to keep there distances from the planet and between 
themselves as close to reality as possible).
My Initials were render with the scene but are not include with the Zip file.
Finally I used Paint Shop Pro for the image_map modification and for the file 
conversion.
I recommend to look at this image in real color (24 bit), it will greatly 
improve the smoothness of the halos.   
 

Why Huygens ?: Has I said at the top, there is many spacecrafts I could have 
               choosed for my image but I found that not only the mission as 
               a great appeal but the name of the probe itself and what it 
               represent is just great. Christiaan Huygens you see was a 
               physicist and astronomer who lived in the 17th century.  He 
               discovered the rings of Saturn and the Orion nebula.  He was 
               also the first ever to emit the theory that the stars were 
               just like the sun but very far away ! It seems obvious to us 
               today but back in the 1600's it was pretty wild stuff.  He 
               also established the pendule theory wich would be used later 
               as the regulator in clocks. Finally in optics, he explaned 
               mathematicaly throught an ondulation theory the propreties of 
               reflexion and refraction of matter! I think POV-Ray users 
               knows about those two ;)  With that kind of achivements I 
               think he pretty much deserve to have that probe named after 
               him, and my picture too, of course. 
        
               By the way the lauch of Cassini is due on October 6 1997. If 
               you are interested in that mission I suggest you visit the 
               NASA site at:HTTP://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/cassini.html   
 

               Thanks for the interest in my work.
        
               P.L.         
                     
#end