The leadership of the space Agency, NASA approved one of the most futuristic projects in its glorious history. Mysterious oceans of Titan, moon of Saturn, will be surveyed using a robotic submarine.
The leadership of the space Agency, NASA approved one of the most futuristic projects in its glorious history. Mysterious oceans of Titan, moon of Saturn, will be surveyed using a robotic submarine.
For the first time about this project, talking in the spring of 2015. Then the idea of sending a submarine to one of Saturn’s moons, was presented at one of the competitions of NASA and has received preliminary approval.
And early September of this year talking about it as a very real project. He was in detail presented at the International conference of technology innovation by NASA and can be implemented within the next two decades.
A real submarine
The idea was born in the bowels of NASA after the research, the Cassini spacecraft sent to Saturn, made a flyby of Titan and found that some methane sources are located at a great depth – at least 200 m and perhaps deeper. Judging this is difficult due to the fact that the Cassini radar could not penetrate to great depths.
The study of the oceans of Titan from orbit is impossible, so the idea of a submarine.
Theoretically, she could go sailing on the Sea the Kraken, the largest “reservoir” of the Titanium, size of the Caspian sea, says the NASA engineer Jason Hartwig. Within a few months, the submarine could travel at least 3,000 km.
Equipped with a variety of research equipment, the boat will be able to transmit to Earth invaluable information about how the sea and the atmosphere of Titan. The boat is cylindrical in shape will have 6 m in length.
As a source of energy for the sub proposes to use a radioisotope generator that can convert heat from radioactive pellets into electricity. This technology is already used on the Cassini spacecraft and the Curiosity Rover.
The submarine itself will operate on the same principles which operate similar vehicles on the Ground. It will set in motion the propeller. And dive and rise to the surface will be carried out by using ballast tanks.
It is expected that the device will spend most of time at depth, periodically surfacing to transmit data to Earth.
In this regard, on the back of the unit will accommodate powerful communication equipment for communication with the Earth that is removed from the Titanium by a distance of approximately 1.4 million km.
The boat will be equipped with equipment for collection and analysis of samples from atanovich and methane oceans of Titan. In addition, onboard will be a variety of cameras, radars, sonars, meteorological equipment.
The mysterious companion
Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and second largest moon in the Solar system (after Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter) – is of interest to scientists for several reasons.
This cold and negostepriimen a moon of Saturn covered with liquid seas, consisting mainly of methane, and above them clouds of cyanide. Overall, the Titan is a little similar to the usual lifeless moons of the planets of the Solar system. Titan look like a planet. Scientists interested in this eerie world, because it resembles the early stages of the Earth formation.
But that’s not all. Not counting Earth, Titan is the only object in the Solar system that has a stable surface in a liquid state. Its atmosphere has the same structure as the earth, Titan also operate the hydrological cycle, defining a fluid transition from the frozen to the liquid state, etc.
