TiME Options

[rlorenz]

Ahoy mateys!

NASA announces Discovery mission selection for Phase A.

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

[centsworth_II]

Long may this thread live! To 2023 and beyond!!!

[Juramike]

Whatever floats your boat!

Congratulations! That is terrific news!

[ngunn]

And a hearty cheer from me. I worked at sea for 17 years and nothing in solar system exploration excites me more than the prospect of sailing an other-worldly sea with the prospect of a huge science payoff.

[Drkskywxlt]

Congratulations, Ralph, and also to your team!

[nprev]

Wow, Ralph, MAJOR congrats!!! This promises to be one of the most exciting missions ever!!!

[titanicrivers]

Excellent! Something to really look forward to.
Read the NASA press release here: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2011/may/H...e_Plantary.html

[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.

[stevesliva]

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?

Depends on how old you are.

[eoincampbell]

I'm on TiME's side, Ligeia Mare, here we come, don't forget your wellies
Targeted landing on moon so far... awesome undertaking... really hope she goes

[antipode]

I like all the selected missions, but TiME seems special in so many ways. The science, given the budget, seems compelling, but the public outreach!
I know the bandwidth will be low, but there is at least a simple imager on the mission isnt there? (yes, I know, all that may be nothing but a flat horizon all round and a dim cloudy sky, but to drift into view of a coastline before she gives out...(and she must be a she!)!

Actually has there been any work done on the possible entry ellipse and targeting accuracy yet? Is the desired target deep water....hydrocarbon...whatever....or a more littoral location?

Getting ahead of myself here...Congratulations Ralph and crew!

P

[machi]

Congratulations Ralph and whole TiME team.
It's right time for TiME!

[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.