Robot Boats And Balloons May Explore Titan
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 21 of October , 2009 at 3:05 am
We know a little bit more about Saturn’s moon Titan since Cassini’s probe Huygens managed to land on its icy surface and snap some incredible pictures, and the evidence for things like hydrocarbon oceans and cryovolcanoes has made a follow-up mission near certain. There have been a variety of long duration proposals, and the coolest ones involve robot balloons and sailing boats.
One of the mission proposals that includes a little sailing boat is called TiME (as in, “it’s TiME for Titan”), which stands for Titan Mare Explorer (mare being scientist-speak for “something that kinda looks ocean-y”). If approved, TiME would launch in January of 2015 and reach Titan in June of 2022, landing in a lake called Ligeia Mare which is about the size of South Korea. Once there, it’ll cruise around the lake, its chief objective being to study the methane cycle on Titan, which is thought to be analogous to the water cycle here on Earth. Solar power won’t be an option (since it’ll be raining methane most of the time), but TiME will be powered by an Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator, which should let it cruise for 14 years or so.
Balloons are also a good option for Titan, since they can cover so much territory without having to worry about getting stuck. Another proposal, called the Titan Saturn System Mission, includes both a little battery powered boat and a hot air balloon that’s designed to spend six months circumnavigating the entire moon:
At the moment, no decision has been made on the next mission to Titan, but whatever it is, it looks like it’s gonna be fun.
[ Presentation on TiME (*.PDF) ]
[ TSSM ]
VIA [ AUVSI ] and [ The Register ]
Comments (1)
Category: Space
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Comment by ralph
Made Thursday, 28 of January , 2010 at 12:02 pm
Great pictures Hope the new govt does not discontinue the space program.
