Titan Mare Explorer (TiME)

As I've mentioned in past blog entries, NASA is funding a series of studies of Discovery missions that could make use of the newly developed ASRG plutonium power supplies. One of the most intriguing has been the Titan Mare Explorer (led by Ellen Stofan), which would put a probe on the surface of one of the lakes of Titan. Public information on the proposed mission has been scanty, but an abstract for the upcoming Division of Planetary Sciences meeting provides a few hints (and I'll add a couple of tidbits I've picked up).

From the abstract, "The scientific objectives of the mission are to: determine the chemistry of a Titan sea to constrain Titan’s methane cycle; determine the depth of a Titan sea; characterize physical properties of liquids; determine how the local meteorology over the seas ties to the global cycling of methane; and analyze the morphology of sea surfaces, and if possible, shorelines, in order to constrain the kinetics of liquids and better understand the origin and evolution of Titan lakes and seas."

I've heard through the grapevine that the instrument suite would be limited (as befits a ~$450M mission) to a mass spectrometer, a meteorology and physical properties experiment (probably several instruments in a package), and a descent and surface camera. This may compare favorably with the instrument package that was proposed for the lake lander in the Titan Saturn System Mission flagship proposal -- it's hard to tell without detailed listings of the proposed instruments. One key instrument that I haven't heard of for the proposed Discovery mission would be a gas chromatograph, which would enable detection of complex molecules. The TSSM lake lander had a combined mass spectrometer/gas chromatograph while I've heard of only a mass spectrometer for the proposed Discovery mission. It isn't clear if the gas chromatograph has been dropped, or just isn't listed.

The Discovery proposal calls for, as I understand it, six months of observations as the probe floats on the lake surface with a possible mission extension of several more months. Depending on how far the probe travels on the surface of the lake, this might allow depth measurements along a significant transect and might even bring the probe to a shore.

Editorial Thoughts: This is an exciting mission proposal. I'd love to see images from the surface of an alien ocean. The measurements of the lake composition would greatly advance our understanding of Titan chemistry.

However, there are some caveats to keep in mind. Data relay would be direct to Earth. Think of tens to hundreds of bits per second, most likely. We are unlikely to get great panoramas of photos. Think postage stamp images. Secondly, Titan is a cold place place (to put it mildly). Designing a probe that can reliably survive months on a Discovery budget may prove to be optimistic. Remember that one of the areas of technology development proposed to enable future Titan landers is technology to survive and operate in the frigid climate.

Still, I like this proposal, and hope that it is feasible in a Discovery budget.

Resources: Titan Mare Explorer abstract