Fly Me to the Moon

We are going to explore Titan, a moon of Saturn, by hot air balloon.

“Titan is the best place to go with a balloon because of the atmosphere,” says Coustenis. Although the atmosphere of Titan is filled with a smoggy orange hydrocarbon haze, it is primarily composed of nitrogen – just like Earth’s. In fact, Astrobiologists think Titan’s atmosphere may be quite similar to how the Earth’s was billions of years ago, before life on our planet generated oxygen…”The ground on Titan may be gooey, and you don’t want to get stuck somewhere,” says Coustenis.

She says that to move around, the TSSM probe could be outfitted with a helicopter rotor that would allow it to fly from place to place. The probe design also may include floaters that would prevent it from sinking if it landed on one of Titan’s hydrocarbon lakes.

The probe also would have a scoop to help it analyze the surface soil or liquid. The models for Titan suggest the surface would be primarily made of hydrocarbon particles that rained out of the thick atmosphere, but Coustenis says they are still unsure of exactly what the chemistry of Titan’s surface is like.

The image of a balloon, floating over mountains and scooping up gooey dirt before flying above hydrocarbon lakes, will probably appear in my dreams tonight.