Why send Rovers to Titan?

[haywood]

Now that the Huygens probe has had such amazing success on Titan, the Project Manager is talking of sending Rovers next.<br /><br />"We can now dream seriously of sending rovers to Titan," said Huygens project manager Jean-Pierre Lebreton of the European Space Agency (ESA). "All we need is the money." <br /><br /><br />I don't understand the necessity.<br />I can surely understand the need for sending rovers to Mars not only for its scientific research purpose but also for future manned missions.<br />The surface of Titan is at a bone chilling -179 degrees celcius.<br />I seriously doubt anyone is thinking of a manned mission to Titan any time soon.<br />Seems like a waste of money to be considering sending a rover there.<br />Congrats to ESA, by the way.<br />

 

[no_way]

You are on a lonely island in the middle of ocean. Does it matter if the next island is a mile or ten miles away ? As long as you dont have a boat and cant swim, youre not gonna go there. <br />IMO, currently mars is equally out of reach for humans as is Titan. We are not gonna go there before we can easily go to orbit first, and we have learnt to survive outside the van Allen belt for long periods of time.<br /><br />Nevertheless, i guess its never too early to start planning.

 

[Leovinus]

One thing is for sure: If we ever run out of methane, we know where to go for a refill. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[telfrow]

Why? <br /><br />Because we can. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <strong><font color="#3366ff">Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will to strive, to seek, to find and not to yeild.</font> - <font color="#3366ff"><em>Tennyson</em></font></strong> </div>

 

[redwhitearcher]

>If we ever run out of methane, we know where to go for a refill<br /><br />Yeah but we can produce it by ourselves if you know what I mean <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" />

 

[Leovinus]

Yeah, there's a huge source of it in Greeley. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[grooble]

Even more cool, would be if you sent an underwater explorer to go into titans ocean, can you imagine the absolute awe and wonder of seeing the ocean bed of an alien world? I can't imagine anything in space exploration more awe inspiring than that. A little probe going deep into Titan's oceans or lakes, deep deep down, perhaps volcanic vents with life around them as may be on Europa. Alien plantlife, fish life, absolutely thrilling.<br /><br />

 

[centsworth_II]

A "volcanic" vent on Titan would expel ultra cold water/ammonia, not hot gas. Also, no deep seas have been found yet. At most, transient pools and streams of liquid methane can be supposed. There may be more permanent bodies of liquid methane, but their presence has not been proven. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[thalion]

Does anyone know the density of liquid ethane and / or methane?

 

[meteo]

I think he was talking about the theoretical ammonia/water bodies of water deep beneath the ice crust. However, I don't think the bottom of the ocean would have volcanic vents, so no sulfur reducing bacteria.<br /><br />http://www.es.ucl.ac.uk/research/planetaryweb/undergraduate/dom/weathering_titan/struc2.jpg

 

[centsworth_II]

<font color="yellow">"...the bottom of the ocean..."</font><br /><br />At this point, there is no known ocean on Titan. But,as you say there is plenty of room for speculation. I find the known facts plenty interesting enough for me. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[no_way]

"But if there are liquid lakes and oceans on titan then that means there could be life there as well right?"<br /><br />Life ( as we picture it ) would have major problems with available energy on Titan. Methane could theorethically act as a substitute for water for a solvent, but life also requires available energy.

 

[johnharlin]

Mars is closer to earth but eventually there will be some major breakthrough made that would allow us to travel so fast we could reach Titan within a month. And really, that is something that the science/engineering world needs to focus on more than anything else. Six or Seven years to get to Titan is just way too long. <br /><br /> The major advantage of Titan is that atmospheric pressure is near that of earth whereas Mars is only 1 percent that of Earth. That near earth pressure makes it a lot easier for a human to survive. He wouldn't need a pressurized suit. And there is lots of frozen water on Titan. A base on Titan could be set up the major need of which would be heat and food. Water could be taken from the surface. A storage ship could be sent along with long term supplies of food. <br /><br /> There may also be some type of life living in the seas of Titan. Remember that it is a well known scientific fact that life existed in our oceans billions of years before it ever existed on our land.<br /><br /> If we were to discover some form of life in the seas of Titan then it would be the greatest discovery ever made. <br /><br />For now, we should not just send rovers up there, we should send Rovers with submersible robots with cameras. We have the technology to do this. We just need to get there faster. That is the major component in all of this that is holding us back.

 

[spayss]

Haywood,<br /> Good question. Another part of the question is we have 'x' dollars to use in space exploration. A finite amount. Is a Titan rover a higher priority than the money spent on some other probe or rover in another mission?

 

[meteo]

<font color="yellow">There may also be some type of life living in the seas of Titan. Remember that it is a well known scientific fact that life existed in our oceans billions of years before it ever existed on our land. </font><br /><br />The theoretical water/ammonia seas may be as far down as 250km. That would be tough to get to.

 

[cdr6]

I think that's the right idea. If we embark on a program of sending rovers ( for sake of discussion lets say a design loosely base on the Mars rovers) to as many solar-bodies (moons/planets) as we can, the configuration will become standardized, and the program cost will thus be driven down.

 

[johnharlin]

The theoretical water/ammonia seas may be as far down as 250km doesn't hold one bit of squat. How dare anyone assumes that those ammonia seas are 250km down. You Don't Know so don't make any conclusions because that is not science.

 

[centsworth_II]

Well how's this: The theoretical water/ammonia seas may not exist. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>