ACP's main objective is the chemical analysis of the aerosols in Titan's atmosphere. For this purpose, it will sample the aerosols during descent and prepare the collected matter (by evaporation, pyrolysis and gas products transfer) for analysis by the Huygens Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GCMS).
ACP is also the result of a close scientific collaboration between France (SA/CNRS) and Austria (Space Research Institute, Graz). Austria's contribution involves the electronic segment: Flight Model hardware and software; electrical ground support equipment (EGSE).
SA/CNRS was supported by CNES in Toulouse, during the fabrication and qualification of ACP's mechanical and pneumatic components.
For the qualification tests and the calibration, SA/CNRS was assisted by the co-investigator institutes, principally: the Laboratory for Planetary Atmospheres at NASA Goddard, the Laboratoire Interuniversitaire Systemes Atmospheriques (LISA) at Creteil and ONERA/CERT at Toulouse.
For Europe's contribution to ACP, the funding resources are principally CNES and
CNRS in France, and SRI and the Ministry for Research in Austria. The prime
industrial contractors were SEP (Melun Villaroche, France), the Joanneum Research
Institute (Graz, Austria) and the Austrian Aerospace (Vienna, Austria).
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