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With its dense and hydrocarbon-rich atmosphere, Titan has been a subject of interest for many decades. And with the success of the Cassini-Huygens mission, which began exploring Saturn and its system of moons back in 2004, there are many proposals on the table for follow-up missions that would explore the surface of Titan and its methane seas in greater depth.
The challenges that this presents have led to some rather novel ideas, ranging from balloons and landers to floating drones and submarines. But it is the proposal for a "Dragonfly" drone by researchers at NASA's JHUAPL that seems particularly adventurous. This eight-bladed drone would be capable of vertical-takeoff and landing (VTOL), enabling it to explore both the atmosphere and the surface of Titan in the coming decades.
The mission concept was proposed by a science team led by Elizabeth Turtle, a planetary scientist from NASA's Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHUAPL). Back in February, the concept was presented at the "Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop" – which took place at NASA's headquarters in Washington, DC – and again in late March at the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas.
One advantage of flying in a methane atmosphere is you don't have to cart a lot of heavy fuel with you.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mhajicek on Sunday May 07 2017, @06:28AM (8 children)
But is there oxygen to burn it with?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @06:38AM (3 children)
Thank you for pointing that out in the first comment.
For P666:
https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/699/why-does-titans-atmosphere-not-start-to-burn [stackexchange.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:34AM (2 children)
Wow! Everything you ever needed to know about Stack Exchange in one concise line:
Otherwise stated as, "Please answer in the form of a solution to my homework assignment."
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday May 07 2017, @07:39AM (1 child)
Yeah, those annoying Jew nigger bastards. Bastard Klezmer-Kikes and nasty nignogs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @06:53PM
Are you okay? Do you need to talk about something?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @09:20AM (3 children)
The article submitter's last comment is scientifically uninformed. You need fuel AND a reactant. While a cute throwaway line, obviously you still need to carry approximately as much fuel exploring a methane environment as you would otherwise. Your "fuel" in this case might well be Oxygen. There is no pervasive free Oxygen present to burn the methane on Titan (as there would be on Earth: the roles of reactant and fuel just switch), just as there are no methane seas on Earth. There's a reason for that: if there HAD been, some lightning strike would have used up one or the other by now. Other than for the occasional undersea methane pocket on Earth, which are dynamically created and then dispersed, there would be no way to find both fuel and reactant. One could at best postulate a few rare oxygen pockets on Titan. Still, that's little help: imagine lighting a match on earth near escaping methane...sort of like a natural gas explosion that levels a house.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 07 2017, @03:23PM
—Imperial Earth, by Arthur C. Clarke
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 08 2017, @12:26AM
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 08 2017, @12:49PM
Well, I am scientifically uninformed. That's why I'm always puzzled by how water always runs downhill and not the other way around...
Or, maybe it's a joke, Mr. Literal.
Washington DC delenda est.