This January, after a 7-year, 2-billion-mile journey strapped to the side of the Cassini orbiter, the Huygens probe decelerated 12,000 mph in less than 2 minutes before parachuting to the frozen surface of Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons. On the way, it took various atmospheric measurements after which it photographed the surface.
Throughout this process, as well as during initial launch back at on Earth, both the probe and orbiter endured tremendous shocks, vibrations and temperature extremes. This posed a serious threat to, among other components, the vacuum-sealed cavities on each spacecraft containing mass spectrometer instrumentation.