Ellen Stofan's presentation on a Discovery class Titan lake lander isn't among them. A friend has seen the presentation, so it was apparently made. Perhaps she didn't want it posted for competitive reasons. A Titan mission affordable in a Discovery budget would be a very strong competitor (assuming that the technical risk is acceptable.
You can go here to look at the presentations: http://gishbar.blogspot.com/2009/04/opag-spring-meeting-presentations.html
Or here to read Jason Perry's summary: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/march09/presentations/
Well I hope someday someone posts a relatively detailed summary of the proposal. I think a cheap and fast Titan lake lander would be not only tremendously exciting, but vital for those of us who think it would be ridiculous to wait until 2040 or so (assuming the project gets chosen around 2020 and allowing for the 10 years of development that the EJSM is getting) for the next Titan mission to arrive.
ReplyDeleteI would think that we could get a lander to Titan within about 2 years 4 months (the time it took New Horizons to cross Saturn's orbit.)
Wouldn't it be amazing to see in-situ pictures of Kraken Mare by 2020?