"Dragonfly" Titan explorer drone, NASA funds Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) |
"Dragonfly" Titan explorer drone, NASA funds Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) |
Jan 3 2018, 07:07 PM
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#31
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Member Group: Members Posts: 120 Joined: 26-May 15 From: Rome - Italy Member No.: 7482 |
iL kraken sea extends to 56 north. I think small lakes can be on 50 north.
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Jan 3 2018, 11:25 PM
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#32
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1669 Joined: 5-March 05 From: Boulder, CO Member No.: 184 |
How about some twilight lake watching?
https://www.space.com/36609-twilight-outshi...moon-titan.html Although the paper mentioned in this article is mainly referring to the total disk brightness as seen from space, it is a reminder that a reasonable amount of scattered light is available at the surface during twilight (e.g. in near-polar winter). -------------------- Steve [ my home page and planetary maps page ]
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Jan 4 2018, 04:20 PM
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#33
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Member Group: Members Posts: 423 Joined: 13-November 14 From: Norway Member No.: 7310 |
Ontario Lacus is in the southern hemisphere, but it is much smaller and shallower than its northern counterparts. Other more equatorial lakes have been theorized but not yet confirmed Polaznik Macula, Sionascaig Lacus and Urmia Lacus on Google Maps This mission seems like an excellent opportunity to test the lake hypotheses for these two features. Also of note: QUOTE However, Stofan et al. (2007) and Tan et al. (2013) state that liquid methane is thermodynamically stable anywhere on the surface of Titan. So, maybe there could be smaller pools of liquid, or even smaller lakes too small to have been resolved yet, even closer to the equator. -------------------- |
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Jan 6 2018, 08:15 AM
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#34
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
From half of Titan's surface, Saturn will be visible almost all the time. That seems like it'd be very useful for navigation, even more so than the Sun, because the Sun will vanish for ~192 hours at a time.
Going a lot farther down the magnitude scale, a really interesting possibility would be if you could see Betelgeuse, Antares, Aldebaran, and possibly some other stars like Arcturus. The former are red giants that are bright in infrared, which, as we know, penetrates Titan's haze pretty well. You'd never see them in the daytime sky, but at night they'd be brighter in the IR band than they are in visible light from Earth. Seems like navigating by the stars could cover your nights on Titan and the combination of the Sun and Saturn would handle the daytime. And an IR sensor could be pretty sensitive operating at 94K. In addition, the radio link with Earth would give you greater precision longitude checks twice per sol. |
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Jan 6 2018, 06:26 PM
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#35
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
Going a lot farther down the magnitude scale, a really interesting possibility would be if you could see Betelgeuse, Antares, Aldebaran, and possibly some other stars like Arcturus. The former are red giants that are bright in infrared, which, as we know, penetrates Titan's haze pretty well. You'd never see them in the daytime sky, but at night they'd be brighter in the IR band than they are in visible light from Earth. Seems like navigating by the stars could cover your nights on Titan and the combination of the Sun and Saturn would handle the daytime. And an IR sensor could be pretty sensitive operating at 94K. The descriptions so far don't mention an IR sensor, although it could be considered an engineering instrument. The highest frequency atmospheric window is 0.93 microns. The Mastcam Z cameras goes to 0.88 microns. I don't know if the sensor itself goes to 0.93 microns and the Mastcam Z limit is based on the scientific value of that band and not the sensor. -------------------- |
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Jan 7 2018, 03:31 AM
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#36
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Member Group: Members Posts: 715 Joined: 22-April 05 Member No.: 351 |
The descriptions so far don't mention an IR sensor, although it could be considered an engineering instrument. The highest frequency atmospheric window is 0.93 microns. The Mastcam Z cameras goes to 0.88 microns. I don't know if the sensor itself goes to 0.93 microns and the Mastcam Z limit is based on the scientific value of that band and not the sensor. I'll correct my last post after finding a better paper. The MastCam Z sensor goes out to a full micron, so if Dragonfly uses a similar sensor, it could image through the 0.93 band. If nothing else, it could take great tourist pictures of the surface with Saturn in the sky (although it would be a monochrome image). -------------------- |
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Jan 7 2018, 10:28 PM
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#37
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1669 Joined: 5-March 05 From: Boulder, CO Member No.: 184 |
At around 0.93 microns these images would be interesting, though still a bit hazy since the aerosol optical depth at this wavelength is about 3 at the zenith. Thus looking at Saturn and stars would be a bit like the view through medium-thin cirrus clouds on Earth. Some details are in figure 12.18 from this paper: http://ciclops.org/media/sp/2010/6514_15623_0.pdf. Saturn may look best during twilight and it should be high in the sky. A wide angle lens (or a mosaic) would help with showing the terrain at the same time.
-------------------- Steve [ my home page and planetary maps page ]
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Dec 14 2018, 09:51 PM
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#38
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Member Group: Members Posts: 613 Joined: 23-February 07 From: Occasionally in Columbia, MD Member No.: 1764 |
The website has been updated with some new images and animations |
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Jan 17 2019, 12:22 AM
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#39
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2106 Joined: 13-February 10 From: Ontario Member No.: 5221 |
A nice video overview from the PI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-OgzT5KO9o
And a Planetary Radio interview: http://www.planetary.org/multimedia/planet...ly-clipper.html |
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Jun 27 2019, 08:12 PM
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#40
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 48 Joined: 8-August 12 Member No.: 6507 |
Announcement is out. Dragonfly is the next New Frontiers Program! Cheers to all involved.
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Jun 27 2019, 08:55 PM
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#41
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1075 Joined: 21-September 07 From: Québec, Canada Member No.: 3908 |
According to this press release, launch in 2026 and arrival at Titan in 2034. (Which means I will be 80 years old then! I just hope I still have some brains left to enjoy the mission.)
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Jun 27 2019, 09:23 PM
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#42
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Member Group: Members Posts: 291 Joined: 29-December 05 From: Ottawa, ON Member No.: 624 |
According to this press release, launch in 2026 and arrival at Titan in 2034. (Which means I will be 80 years old then! I just hope I still have some brains left to enjoy the mission.) Yeah, I did the age calculator thing on myself. We're the same age! It's life expectancy will likely outlive mine. |
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Jun 27 2019, 09:31 PM
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#43
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Member Group: Members Posts: 154 Joined: 8-June 04 Member No.: 80 |
Interesting mission. I wonder how it will avoid landing in a lake of liquid ethane or sinking in anything resembling quicksand.
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Jun 27 2019, 10:01 PM
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#44
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Congrats to all involved! Should be a VERY exciting mission, and hopefully the nice people at the nursing home will let me watch it!
Speaking of that, be interesting to see what trajectories, assumptions, and trade-offs are in play for the launch. There may be some interesting booster options available by the middle of the next decade. -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jun 27 2019, 10:26 PM
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#45
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
This is super exciting.
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