ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO -- Work is underway to develop an all-weather inflatable vehicle to float through the thick, cold, and nitrogen rich atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan.
Titan is a world-class holder of a significant atmosphere, contrasted to other moons surveyed in our solar system. That makes the moon a perfect place for sky-high thinking.
Jack Jones, an engineer with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, provided details of the proposed extraterrestrial airship during the Space Technology & Applications International Forum (STAIF-2002), held here February 3-6.
JPL's Jones and Ralph Lorenz, a scientist at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, see ballooning on Titan as a viable way to explore Saturn's largest moon.
Floating the idea
"Titan has a density about four times that of Earth's surface atmosphere. That makes it ideal for floating balloons," Jones said. "Any balloon on Earth of a given size would carry four times the payload on Titan," he said.
A preliminary design for a Titan mobility system, or the Titan Aerover as it's called, has been identified as a modified blimp.
Flying at an altitude of about 6 miles (10 kilometers) above the moon's surface, the nearly 40-foot (12 meters) in length vehicle could "orbit" the moon about once every one to two weeks. By circling Titan below its upper opaque clouds, the Aerover could train cameras and other instruments on an expected range of surface features. Replete with a landing wheel, the blimp could also gently set down on Titan terra firma, or even liquid hydrocarbon oceans.
Tucked in delivery package
Jones said that Titan is believed now to mimic how Earth appeared in its early formative periods. "Titan was once as warm as the Earth with liquid water oceans, and had a nitrogen/methane atmosphere. But it cooled down very rapidly and got stuck in that state," he said.
Titan may well prove to be home for biotic activity, particularly if there are sources of heat on the moon, such as from volcanoes or geysers, Jones reported.
A major breakthrough has taken place in the materials needed to fabricate the blimp. A very strong fabric material has been identified, along with a special glue and sealant - all of which can take the temperatures on Titan.
"This material will allow us to fly at all the altitudes that we're looking for," Jones said.
A Titan Aerover could be delivered to the moon, tightly tucked in and packaged behind a heat-beating aeroshell. High above the moon, the airship would unfold itself and start its snooping. The incidences of storms on Titan are estimated to be far less than on Earth.
"Here on Earth, the round-the-world balloon trips have to contend with all sorts of weather conditions and day, night solar fluxes that our Titan Aerover won't have to deal with. It's a very benign atmosphere," Jones explained.
Huygens arrival
Jones said work on the blimp concept is moving forward. And timing is everything, with the JPL engineer noting that in just a few years everybody will get up-close-and-personal with Titan.
Onboard the Cassini spacecraft -- launched in 1997 and now on track for arrival at Saturn in July 2004 -- sits the European Space Agency's Huygens probe. That Titan lander will be set free from Cassini in early 2005.
"We want to be ready so when the Huygens probe lands on Titan, we can say, 'ah ha, we have a mission we're working on that could explore Titan in the 2010-2011 time frame,'" Jones said.
Who knows what's in store for the Huygens probe?
That lander is built to bob - that is, it floats! Perhaps Huygens will splash down in a methane/ethane sea or come to rest on a methane iceberg. It could wash up on some frigid Titanic beach, or touch down on land.
Whatever the case, perhaps a future Aerover will hover over and inspect that leftover relic from space exploration past - a find of "titanic" proportions.
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