Mission to Titan
On Titan, methane, the primary ingredient of Methane-LOX rocket fuel, falls from the sky in large raindrops, courses through rivers, cuts canyons, and then flows into large methane-ethane lakes and seas.
With an atmosphere of Nitrogen, abundant methane, and other carbon gases, this moon of Saturn could serve a future fuel source and depot for exploration of the outer planets. Is this feasible with today's technology? How can it be accomplished? We may be about to find out.
With its cloudy atmosphere, rain, rivers and lakes, the surface of Titan appears as one of the most Earthlike places in the solar system. However, it sports a very unearthlike atmosphere of Nitrogen (95%); and methane (CH4), as well as trace amounts of other hydrocarbons, including ethane (C2H6), diacetylene (C4H2), methylacetylene (CH3C2H), acetylene (C2H2 ), and propane (C3H8). Large seas in the north, such as the Kraken Mare (720 miles long), are filled with liquid methane and ethane. It is so cold (-290 degrees Fahrenheit or -179 degrees Celsius), it is speculated that rocks may be made of water ice in the way that our earth rocks are made of minerals..
Nasa is considering a submarine mission exploring the Ligeia or the Kraken Mare, primary purpose of searching for hydrocarbon life forms. A mysterious phenomenon appears in Ligeia Mare and was named magic island (because it appears and disappears). It has been sugeested that the islands are waves. However they may be bubbles, and thus obsacles for our proposed submarine to be weary of.
The European Space Agency Huygens spacecraft hitchlhiked on, and then launched from NASA's orbiting Cassini in 2005. As its landing destination was thought to possibly be a shoreline from photos, it was designed to float as well as land. Its landing site instead turned out to be a flat plain. Its cameras rolling as it landed on Titan, it transmitted for 90 minutes.
NASA's Dragonfly Mission is scheduled to depart in 2026 and arrive at Titan six years later in 2032. Dragonfly is powered by a MMRTG, which derives energy from the heat of the decay of plutonium-238 captured in a solid-state thermocouple. Dragonfly will fly around Titan for a 2 1/2 years perfoming analysis with a Mass Spectrometer, a Gamma-Ray and Neutron Spectrometer, meteorological sensors, and a seismometer. It will of course have microscopic and panoramic cameras.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program/contest seeks to spur the development of potentially game-changing exploration ideas and technologies. A phase one winner has suggested the possiblility of sending a sample-return vehicle to Saturn's moon piggybacking on the upcoming Dragonfly mission. The craft, which would be designed to return samples to Earth, would be refuled with in-situ fuel created on TItan.
The suggested rocket fuel, as one would expect, is Methane-LOX. Methane-LOX, composed of liquid methane and Liquid Oxygen, is hailed as the most likely future rocket fuel, and is now used on such craft as the SpaceX Starship. While the methane is clearly readily available on Titan, I note that oxygen is not ususally listed in the elements found in Titan's atmosphere.
Although Hgyuen's pictures look like rocks; Cassini's infared pictures of Titan (2017) revealed what they belive to be a ribbon of bedrock water ice.. “Our PCA study indicates that water ice is unevenly, but not randomly, exposed across Titan’s tropical surface. Most of the exposed ice-rich material follows a long, nearly linear, corridor that stretches 6,300 (kilometers),” or nearly 4,000 miles (6,400 km).
A surface area of Titan, known as Sotra Facula, is Cryovolcanic. Cryovolcanos are erupting elements into the atmosphere; the explulsion suspected of being methane and water shooting out from the core of the moon. Analysis pending. In case the melting ice doesnt work out, I suggest we attempt to capture some of this ejection and analyze it. The methane and water could be separated and made into fuel right there.
So we need to detach our craft from Dragonfly, and then remotely: process methane from the sea or air, find and extract oxygen, mix them together properly, and then fuel up our return vehicle with it. Piece of Cake! Lets do it. Maybe Xerox PARC could help.
If this doesn't work out, finding water within the Saturian system shouldn't be too much problem. Saturn's frozen ocean moon "Enceladus" spurts water vapor and methane into space , filling the entire Saturn magnetisphere with water molecules. Actually, perhaps Enceladus should be the fuel depot.
Jupiter's Europa may shoot water into space as well, as the Europa Clipper flyby in April 2030 will tell.
The week of this writing, "Ingenuity" separated and unfolded from the Perseverance Rover on Mars and will be the first drone flying around on another planet. https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ .
Data Collected by Evan Robinson Email: ganymede2029@gmail.com
Off site Links for more detailed info:
(PDF) Sample Return from Titan (researchgate.net)
Titan: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/saturn-moons/titan/in-depth/
Titans Cryptovolcanoes: Cryovolcanism on Titan: New results from Cassini RADAR and VIMS
Possible Energy Sources on Titan: Hendrix and Yung (2017) Energy Options for Future Humans on Titan. Astrobiol Outreach 5: 157. doi:10.4172/2332-2519.1000157 (Hydrognation of acetylene; hydogenation of atmospheric Nitrogen; Hydroelectric power produced by the methane-ethane-filled seas and lakes; wind; solar. They could add: Photocatalysts activated by light.
Titan Mission at Universe Today: a-titan-mission-could-refuel-on-site-and-return-a-sample-to-earth
Looks like ChatGTE doesn't quite concur with the feasibility of my hypothesis. Fascinating info though: