http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/nov2008Meetin...tions/TSSM3.pdf
Page cannot be found

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/nov2008Meetin...tions/TSSM3.pdf

The URL seems to work for me indeed the front page of the PDF document shows our Intrepid Saturn explorer with two solar arreys!
I think I will go and look at the March OPAG PDF documents to see how this compares. Are we saving on RTG'S( I think not)
and what would be the trade here? would the wieght of the solar array and its launch costs make up for any savings on supplamenting the RTG's?

The two arrays are part of the SEP stage.

Ahhhhhhh!
inner solar system orbit!
the Eveej trajectory!
got it
thanks

I'm no chemist, so the following is probably completely wrong, but it seems to me that when this warm plutonium powered machine from our silicate world drops into Kraken Mare it might quickly be wreathed in ethane steam. This might make post splashdown imaging problematic.

I understood the lake boat would be battery powered and short-lived, like Huygens.

Ah, OK. I hope it's well insulated!

A wet landing will certainly pose lens contamination problems. They probably won't even know what types of contamination to prepare for. Even with a dry landing, the thick atmosphere can carry any number of contaminants onto a lens.

Huygens didnt seem to have any issues....

But in any case, imaging isnt a major priority for the TSSM lake lander - it is north polar winter
when it descends, so twilight imaging I guess. For the spectacular vistas, see the montgolfiere

Fortunately I understand the engineers at ESA have spent a lot of time and research on a solution to this.


It's called a lenscap.



All kidding aside, I would imagine that any contaminents would only spash up on the initial contact with the ocean. After things settle down, it is a comparatively simple matter to jetison the lenscap and be able to take those fabulous photos of ... uh.... well, uh ...

That brings up the next problem.... what exactly would you take pictures of? You think the surface of the ocean looks dull on Earth, imagine a place with lower light levels and virtually no wind gusts.

At the risk of sounding heretical, I would almost trade an imager for a basic underliquid sonar mapping capability...but upon further reflection, nah. We don't know enough about the liquid's composition to design such an instrument (though a depth sounder would be a must-have; the observed transmission properties would set some additional constraints on the material's composition, and I'm assuming that they'll try some sort of chemical analysis).

As for imagery...I vote IR!

<ouch!>

...how'd I know that Mike would catch that...

so we do an experiment?
NASA JPL ESA build a engineering flight article and.........................................
emerse it in a liquid ethane/organic carbin mixture make and run experiments with different theorys on turbity