Kassini/Kuygens finally arrives at Sarnus, Kuygens lands on Tekto

Year 16, Day 267

Finally, after years of travelling, the Kassini orbiter/probe along with its Tekto lander companion Kuygens has arrived into orbit around the "Ringed Giant" planet, Sarnus!

---

It only entered orbit about two weeks ago, but has made so many discoveries already about Sarnus and its moons. It discovered that the moon Ovok, alongside being very small, is also shaped highly ovoid, looking somewhat like an egg. But that's only one of the many discoveries it has found out. It has also discovered:

• Tekto has extremely large lakes on its surface, likely composed of liquid methane, not water
• Sarnus likely has a mostly solid, part liquid core deep below its clouds
• Sarnus is far warmer than we originally thought
• And so much more than even this.

It's truly crazy what Kassini has already discovered about Sarnus and its moons by itself, but alongside that, also within its first two weeks of orbiting, the Kuygens probe attached to its side was detached and sent off to land on the surface of Tekto.

---

During atmospheric entry on Tekto, the Kuygens probe experienced significant heating due to the thick atmosphere, but survived entry. It then (a bit further down) deployed its main chutes at half, and descended until about 2 km off the ground, and then fully deployed its parachutes.

After this, Kuygens jettisoned its heat shield, letting it fall 2 km and impact the ground. The last step of the landing was deploying the landing legs and waiting until touchdown. And it successfully completed touchdown, and gave us so much useful info about what it was like on Tekto! You can see the video of its landing below:

---

---

This video clearly shows all the stages of the Kuygens probe descending; plunging through the outer atmosphere, parachutes deploying, and of course, landing. The video does show something very peculiar, however: during the landing stage, we can see what looks like giant towering fungi trees, well, that's what it LOOKS like, it could not be that, but as of right now, the possibility and likelihood of this being the case is shockingly high. That's right, there MIGHT be life beyond Kerbin! Albeit, probably non-moving and not intelligent at all, but still... if this proves true in the future, it could be the discovery of the century.

Other than Kuygens, Kassini has also proved very useful in its discoveries and will likely continue to fascinate scientists with its data and pictures for a long time to come until it does eventually have to be discarded.