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Moons of our Solar System
Moons of our Solar System

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1.5 Splashdown on Titan?

You have seen how much moons vary around the Solar System. Each world has a different set of questions and challenges. Concept studies look at how we might overcome some of these challenges through engineering and what science we can gain.

The Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) concept study aimed to provide the first direct exploration of an ocean environment beyond Earth by landing and floating on a methane–ethane lake on Saturn’s moon Titan. TiME was under serious consideration by NASA until August 2011, when it was dropped in preference to a geophysical mission to Mars. The plan for TiME was to look for any similarities and differences with Earth and other Solar System bodies, as well as investigating the chemistry of the lakes. It is likely that a parachute descent system would be used to place the instrument on the liquid surface. Missions such as these could observe the surface chemistry and weather systems of unknown worlds.

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Figure _unit9.2.3 Figure 3 A future mission to Titan?

See also: December 2017 announcement by NASA of funding for development of a drone-like rotor-driven craft to flit about Titan, for possible launch in the 2020s. Dragonfly mission to Titan [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]