TiME Options

[rlorenz]

Ahoy mateys!

NASA announces Discovery mission selection for Phase A.

Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) is among them. Har!

[punkboi]

I hope TiME gets chosen in 2016. Outer Planet mission > Inner Planet mission

[SFJCody]

I also prefer TiME to the other candidates. METNET can do some Martian geophysical studies and Rosetta/Philae can investigate a comet nucleus. But when's the next chance we'll get to see Titan up close other than this?


Edit: Oops, I forgot METNET was 100% meteorological! For some reason I thought it had a few geophysical instruments as well.

[Juramike]

But when's the next chance we'll get to see Titan up close other than this?

The real beauty of TiMe is that it's instrument package and environment would be perfectly scientifically complementary (synergistic with) all the other currently proposed Titan missions (baloon, JET, AVIATR airplane, future orbiter, etc.)

So if TiME is selected, it shouldn't hurt the chances of other proposed Titan missions from a purely scientific viewpoint.

[tfisher]

I agree: of the three announced candidate missions, TiME really excites the imagination. I expect the images we get back would be pretty underwhelming : I picture something like the myopic postage stamps from the Huygens landing, except with the only visible scenery being a few ripples on a calm lake surface. But the idea of going to such a distant, alien location, and exploring in a way that has never been done before... That is exciting. This mission is about Exploration in the truest sense. I grew up thinking about space from the Star Trek perspective: "to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before." That is exactly what the TiME mission sounds like to me Well, minus the new civilizations, and probably [thought not quite certainly!] minus the new life forms. But certainly exploration of a strange new world. Contrast to the other mission proposals, which are more mundane planetary science. That is science with a small 's' : filling in details, trying to add a little bit onto the big pile of knowledge. Still interesting stuff, but not nearly so inspirational.

[centsworth_II]

...I expect the images we get back would be pretty underwhelming...

The descent images should be fantastic! Imagine seeing the shoreline in detail as the probe lands! Also, I'm thinking that eventually the floating probe may be blown onto shore. Hopefully the camera will have remained clear enough to get a good look. That's one thing I worry about, windblown and splashed stuff coating the optics.

[ngunn]

Imagine seeing the shoreline in detail as the probe lands

I was under the impression that it would aim to splash down a long way from land, probably too far for the shoreline to be visible during descent. Also I seem to remember it being said that it would all happen in darkness or at most twilight. Am I misremembering? Of course any image at all would be nice but I'd still back the mission even if there were no images, just great chemistry.

[centsworth_II]

I was under the impression that it would aim to splash down a long way from land... it would all happen in darkness or at most twilight. ...

"Earth & the Sun are above the horizon for the 3 month mission lifetime, during which TiME collects and transmits data on the lake and atmosphere." http://www.spacepolicyonline.com/pages/ima...Stofan-TIME.pdf

Of course even at noon it's twilight on Titan, especially at the pole, I imagine. But I expect the imaging system should be designed to get good pictures throughout the entire mission.

As far as distance from the shore, the Huygens panoramas cover quite a distance. I don't know how much better the Time descent images may be or how high the probe may be and still capture shots of the shoreline.