Questions tagged [titan]
Questions relating to the exploration of Titan, a moon of Saturn.
82 questions
16votes
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Why not send a Mars rover to Titan?
It's nuclear powered The mission would be virtually identical to the one at Mars. We've already pushed larger objects to Saturn Once every 15 years or so, Jupiter's in a position to give a gravity ...
2votes
1answer
221views
How to model the gravity of Titan in GMAT
I would like to know how to find the gravity file (.cof) for Saturn's moon Titan. Need this to model the gravity field of Titan.
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11votes
3answers
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Could a Nuclear-Thermal turbine keep a winged craft aloft on Titan at 5000m ASL?
It's what it sounds like: Given the output of the NASA nuclear reactor (the one they're going to use for the Artemis program), and the use of an electric-motor-driven turbine system, how feasible is a ...
- 1,195
3votes
1answer
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Aerostats in the outer solar system
Having read a lot lately about some preliminary studies of aerostat options on Venus and Earth (Semirigid gas bags filled with N2/O2 to allow for a dual breathable/lifting gas - sorry no source on ...
- 1,195
1vote
2answers
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Using orbital construction around another body to build probes
It's what it sounds like: I want to know whether sending a probe builder to orbit a moon or a planet (for this question I'm thinking of Titan or another smallish body in the outer system.), to build ...
- 1,195
23votes
3answers
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How does Titan have hydrogen in its atmosphere?
Titan's atmosphere contains few tenths of a percent of hydrogen. This seems odd to me, as Earth with a 4x greater escape velocity cannot retain hydrogen or even helium in its atmosphere. Titan is 3x ...
- 333
1vote
1answer
130views
Does NASA's Titan explorer Dragonfly have a microscope? How will it observe potential microbial life?
One of NASA's stated goals with the Dragonfly mission is to "study astrobiology, prebiological chemistry, and the potential habitability of an extraterrestrial environment." I would think it ...
- 429
9votes
0answers
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How do people know how big the rocks are in the photos of Titan's surface?
How do people know how big the rocks are in the photos of Titan's surface?
1vote
0answers
67views
What should be the mission plan in order to reach TITAN (SATURN) by a group of 15 people for Scientific Exploration? [closed]
I am working on a project where we have to design a Mission to TITAN by Digitally construct and document the development of a six-month long human settlement on Titan (Moon), bearing the capability to ...
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4votes
0answers
127views
Just how locked is Titan? Does it exhibit libration due to eccentricity? Have residual oscillations not yet damped out been detected or ruled out?
Under Where is the Selk crater on Titan with respect to Saturn? there is @BrendanLuke15's comment which provides a helpful hint: Tidally locked moons have their 0° longitude defined as the 'sub-...
- 153k
5votes
1answer
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Where is the Selk crater on Titan with respect to Saturn?
The Dragonfly mission to Titan will land at the Selk crater. Titan is tidally locked in synchronous rotation with Saturn and I'm trying to find out if Dragonfly will be on the Saturn-facing side of ...
- 3,405
9votes
1answer
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How do they know that the Dragonfly helicopter won't get quickly coated in tholin muck? Any desliming technology for camera lenses or propellors?
From Air and Space's Dragonfly Is the First Aircraft Built for the Outer Solar System; NASA returns to Saturn’s largest moon with a rover that can fly. which I just found in this heavily-sourced ...
- 153k
9votes
2answers
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What is the pop-up circular disk with spiral pattern in this NASA animation of the Dragonfly helicopter for Titan? Antenna? Kind, band, target?
At 00:36 in the June 2019 NASA video Dragonfly: NASA's New Mission to Explore Saturn's Moon Titan the animation shows it landing then deploying a circular disk with ...
- 153k
3votes
0answers
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Closed oxygen cycle methane-burning internal combustion engine for Titan rover/helicopter? Works like a battery together with RTG that won't freeze?
@TildalWave's answer to Methane internal combustion engines for rovers on Mars and Moon. Feasibility? raises the possibility of using Titan's atmospheric methane for an energy source as long as you ...
- 153k
7votes
2answers
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How can they be so sure that Dragonfly will "freeze to death" as opposed to simply (and eventually) running out of RTG power? (238Pu decay)
tl;dr: "...will probably freeze to death...before it runs out of power..." If power keeps it from freezing to death and it hasn't run out of power, why would it freeze to death? Space.com's ...
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