"Dragonfly" Titan explorer drone, NASA funds Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Options

[Decepticon]

I was a little upset that we may not see any close observations of the lakes but we do know channels are known to be there from Huygens images. Landing and sampling the liquid that carved these features will be a science and visual bonanza.

[JRehling]

Titan has extraordinary diversity of surface units, so the value of the mission will not be in covering a large fraction of the total surface but in taking a path that samples a wide variety of those surface unit types. I don't know what sort of total traverse distance is possible, and we'll all be hoping for an Opportunity-like success beyond the nominal lifespan, but it seems likely that one, nominal ground track could visit many of the major surface unit types, and a fairly long one could visit most of them.

Unfortunately, there is some latitude-based regularity in Titan's geography, so a mission landing at the equator will likely miss what is at the poles, and the converse would also be true.

I think we can guess that Titan might have a few unique areas scattered around its surface and of course we can't visit them all, but this one mission to Titan might encounter more diversity of surface units than all our missions to Mars, Venus, and the Moon have, combined.

[Webscientist]

Great news!
A major technological and scientific challenge!
Potential rainfall events from time to time in the equatorial or tropical area. So why not puddles (if the surface is not too porous or absorbent).
Many questions regarding the nature and the physical characteristics of Titan's dunes.
Are those dunes related to an ancient ocean or sea of methane or to the repetitive action of rainfall events (erosion, evaporation...) for instance ?
What kind of chemistry of course?

[JRehling]

Most locations in Titan's low latitudes did not receive rainfall during Cassini's mission and a mean time between rainfall events is almost certainly in the range of decades if not centuries.

We don't know what we don't know about Titan, and so we explore it, but I wouldn't bet on finding puddles that have lasted decades.

[kymani76]

A year or so ago, the Cassini VIMS team released a surface color map of Titan. Does anyone have a link to the final product? I'd like to see what it looks like around Shangri-La and Selk.

The VIMS basemap is available to download using Titan Trek.

On hearing about Dragonsfly's selection I also made this quick orthogonal map showing the illuminated portion of Titan as it will appear in 2034, with solar subpoint at latitude 23º south. The view is centered at Dragonfly's landing area around Selk crater, which is about 3500 kilometers from the nearest lakes at the southern pole.

[Webscientist]

For a presentation upon the Cassini-Huygens mission in my astronomy club, I recently made this view of Titan compared to the other moons of Saturn at scale.

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[Webscientist]

For the perspective, another one revealing the worlds containing liquid surfaces:

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[ngunn]

I like that liquid surfaces one. Just maybe you will be able to add Venus to it at some point.

I have another perspective for anyone not wishing to wait until 2034 for great views over Titan. This is a painting I finally got finished recently after many delays. It's called Weathered Shore: Titan

(Mods or admins - I tried unsuccessfully to post this on another thread. If you are seeing those efforts please delete/ignore them.)

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[titanicrivers]

What a superb creation ngunn! I really like the weathered and porous looking lower foreground. The white band in the center ... ? evaporite terrain?, waves crashing? (sorry if way off on the interpretation!).

[ngunn]

I was thinking banks of icy shingle strewn here and there over the dark plains by intermittent floods, but hey - see whatever you like. Not everything in the picture is meant to be immediately comprehensible, as I figure that's how it would be if you were standing there.

[HSchirmer]

I like that liquid surfaces one. Just maybe you will be able to add Venus to it at some point.
(snip)

Would melted components of the Venera probes count as liquid on the surface?

Amazing when you have to revise the ides of gasses here being liquids and solids on Titan.

[Webscientist]

[quote name='ngunn' date='Jul 1 2019, 08:02 PM' post='245157']
I like that liquid surfaces one. Just maybe you will be able to add Venus to it at some point.

I have another perspective for anyone not wishing to wait until 2034 for great views over Titan. This is a painting I finally got finished recently after many delays. It's called Weathered Shore: Titan

Thanks ngunn and congratulation for your true artwork. The color of the sea is a big question mark. We'll see in the 40's or before if you were close to reality!

[JRehling]

Beautiful painting, ngunn! First I was struck by the beauty, then wished I could stand there and take in the view (with a very warm coat).

[vjkane]

I've added a 200 km scale bar and a 200 km radius circle to a VIMS color image of the Selk crater area. The mission plans to land ~180 km away from Selk (although I don't know if this is rim or center of the crater). The mission may also spend time exploring the bright region to the southeast of the crater.

The mission will take approximately 2.5 years to go from the landing to the crater (again, don't know if this is rim or center and whether that includes time exploring the crater). Assuming it spends another 2.5 years exploring the crater and perhaps the southeastern bright area, then that leaves around three more years for further exploration of another region before power becomes a problem.

Selk sits in a sea of sand dunes. Assuming these were previously well explored, the craft might motor across them to reach another area. If it can do ~15 km per Titan day, then it might do ~360 km in a year. That might put the bright area Dilmun in reach. (I could not find any information on the nature of this area in a Google search.) The mountainous Adiri region would seem to be out of reach.

[mcaplinger]

The mountainous Adiri region would seem to be out of reach.

Back in 2017 you were still speculating that it would be possible to fly from equator to pole. What changed?

I think it's a little early yet to know what the baseline mission profile will look like, though conservatism is not an unreasonable assumption.