OK, we might have gotten twice as many images -- but in qualitative terms, how much better would 700 pictures been than 350?
Assuming that the lost scenes didn't have a 1:4:9 monolith or some pyramid, let me suggest that once you have the first 350 that have so strikingly characterized the visual environment, having twice as many views might increase your understanding of Titan by ...
..how about, by about 10%? Yeah, maybe a tenth...
Not to minimize the seriousness of the oversight, but -- how serious was it in the big picture of understanding Titan.
Moral: we reach as FAR as we can grasp, and Huygens was at the VERY edge of our human ability, as this error -- and the doppler error I wrote about (see today's 'space review' site) -- shows.
Personally, if we try a space mission and it works perfectly, my instinct says, we didn't push hard enough, and lost opportunities from lack of boldness. THAT was not Huygens' flaw, and for that, I'm immeasurably grateful.
Space/Science » in reply to One data channel of two on Huygens was lost due to software error
Loss of half pictures -- how bad really? Not too bad?