This nuclear-powered NASA sub may someday explore the seas of Saturn's moon, Titan
Meteorologist/Science Writer
Thursday, February 19, 2015, 8:29 AM - If you're going to send a robot on a journey of over a billion kilometres, to delve under the hydrocarbon seas of an alien moon, you want to do it in style. This nuclear-powered sub may be what NASA sends to do the job on Saturn's moon, Titan.
It's been a little over a decade since the Cassini spacecraft dropped the ESA's Huygens probe off to land it on the surface of Titan, and although Cassini swings by the moon from time to time to snap great pictures, a return mission to the surface is going to happen at some point.
Huygens gave scientists back here on Earth plenty to marvel over, as it sent data on Titan's atmosphere as it floated down towards the surface and then about its surroundings once it touched down. However, even though the probe was designed for a potential liquid touchdown, it actually set down on land. So, what lies under the surface of Titan's hydrocarbon lakes and seas still remains a mystery to us.
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Therefore, it's only natural that if we're going to send another mission to Titan, at least one part of that mission should be specifically to dive into those seas to explore them thoroughly.
That's where the concept of a submarine comes into play.
"Titan Submarine, or Titan Sub for short, will be a fully autonomous, highly capable science craft that will allow a complete exploration of what exists beneath the waves on another world," writes Steven Oleson, a spacecraft systems designer at NASA's Glenn Research Center.
"This craft will autonomously carry out detailed scientific investigations under the surface of Kraken Mare," Oleson wrote, "providing unprecedented knowledge of an extraterrestrial sea and expanding NASA's existing capabilities in planetary exploration to include in situ nautical operations."
Kraken Mare is the largest body of liquid on Titan's surface, roughly the size of the Great Lakes. The word 'liquid' is used here because the submarine wouldn't be diving under water, but a basin filled with liquid natural gas.
What would the submarine be looking for there? It would map the sea floor, observe the terrain of its shores, take meteorological measurements of the air when surfaced, and it would measure the trace organic compounds in the sea.
According to this 'first cut' design proposal:
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| Measurement of the trace organic components of the sea, which perhaps may exhibit prebiotic chemical evolution, will be an important objective, and a benthic sampler would acquire and analyze sediment from the seabed. These measurements, and seafloor morphology via sidescan sonar, may shed light on the historical cycles of filling and drying of Titan's seas. |
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Why is all this important to us?
Beyond simply furthering our scientific knowledge of the solar system, according to the scientists that no doubt influenced the development of the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, "Titan provides us with an opportunity to travel back in time."
Titan, today, is like Earth in its distant past, before the development of its current oxygen-rich atmosphere, when life first developed here. Thus, a thorough investigation of Titan, especially its liquid methane seas, could shed light on how life began on Earth, and ultimately developed into us.
Sources: NASA | NASA / JHU APL / PS ARL (pdf) | NASA / ESA
