NASA has announced the selection of the TitanAir project envisioned by Planet Enterprises’ Quinn Morley, as part of a program to support cutting-edge technological innovations. The idea is to send a low-cost seaplane drone into Titan’s atmosphere.
The project has been selected for the first phase of the NIAC program (Innovative advanced concepts from NASA) among other futuristic projects such as a lunar pipeline or a nuclear thruster. The NIAC program encourages visionaries to think about cutting-edge technologies that could be used later, for example for remote exploration missions.
Atmospheric and lake samples
The Titan Air Project proposed by Quinn Morley of Planet Enterprises proposes a seaplane that could make daily flights in the sky of Titan and be able to land in hydrocarbon lakes. The idea is to collect the complex organic molecules suspended in the air and captured during the condensation of atmospheric methane. Sample capture may be performed through vents located in the wings of the drone and would be studied with the instruments on board.
Naturally, the device would also analyze samples taken from the lakes where it would land. Quinn Morley initially proposes to carry out the first feasibility experiments under the NIAC programme.
Titan: top trendy destination!
The moon Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, it is even larger than Mercury. Titan is also unique in the entire Solar System, being the only star (other than Earth) to have lakes and seas. Of course, it is not the water but the hydrocarbons that are found in a liquid state on the surface, but it remains a potential environment where an elementary life form could develop.
Titan has already had visitors in the past. On January 14, 2005, the European lander Huygens, transported by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, landed on the surface and took measurements on site for a few hours before stopping the broadcast. It was the only time we could see Titan’s surface, hidden behind the moon’s very thick atmosphere. For its part, NASA plans to send the Dragonfly helicopter drone to Titan in 2027.
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