Proposed Titan Paddle Boat Mission, The Titan Lake In-situ Sampling Propelled Explorer (TALISE) proposes a Options

[Phil Naranjo]

I saw this article today: The Titan Lake In-situ Sampling Propelled Explorer (TALISE) proposes a sending an instrument-laden boat-probe to Saturn’s largest moon.

Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/97611/paddleb.../#ixzz27hR16wOH

I was under the impression that the liquid hydrocarbon lakes of Titan were highly viscous, more tar like? Prior to Cassini, I recall speculation by scientists that Titan might harbor giant waves.

--Phil

[atomoid]

i imagine if a Titan Balloon inflation payload (if not the gondola itself, or why not both!?) could be structured to drop on its own parachute to float Huygens-style on one of the lakes, we'd get the best of both worlds..

[rlorenz]

i imagine if a Titan Balloon inflation payload (if not the gondola itself, or why not both!?) could be structured to drop on its own parachute to float Huygens-style on one of the lakes, we'd get the best of both worlds..

I have in fact (on a TV shoot for '95 Worlds and Counting') been on a hot air balloon that ditched briefly in Mono Lake since we were starting to drift away from shore and recovery on the other side would take too much time. Seeing water welling up around my feet in the wicker basket was interesting. We took off again briefly by a few feet and landed on a boat which could push us back to shore to resume filming.

Anyway, point being you can land a balloon rather safely on the surface of a lake, without carrying a parachute. Whether that is the best thing to do with a balloon is of course open to debate.