Titan is the largest Moon of Saturn; this natural satellite is of great interest to scientists since it contains chemical compounds that living beings could produce, that is, by extraterrestrials in the form of microbes.
But despite our great scientific interest in this planet, only four space exploration probes have managed to reach this distant world, and only one has managed to land on its surface.
Why haven’t we sent more missions to explore Titan? Is it tough to go to Titan?
Titan, the giant of Saturn
The largest satellite of Saturn was discovered on March 25, 1655, by astronomer Christiaan Huygens. At that time, Huygens had no way of determining the size of this natural satellite, but due to its brightness, he estimated that it could be as large as the Moon.
Years later, with more advanced telescopes, the diameter of Titan could be precisely measured, revealing that this satellite was bigger than the Moon and even more bigger than Mercury.
However, until 1979, the only thing that was known about this gigantic satellite was that it was more significant than Mercury and had an intense brightness, but it was not known why.
Pioneer 11 exploration probe flew over Titan and sent the first images of this natural satellite.
Later, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes would fly by Saturn in 1980 and 1981, respectively. When the Pioner11, Voyager 1, and Voyager 2 spacecraft flew near Titan in the 1980s, they barely captured a few images of this distant world.
The main objective of these exploration probes was to capture data from the gas giant planets. Still, NASA engineers concluded that it would be better to take advantage of the fact that the spacecrafts was already close to those moons to bring them closer and take some images of those distant worlds in more detail.
That act of curiosity to see what was in that distant world would end up being the beginning of something much bigger.
The first spacecraft to fly over Titan was Pioneer 11, taking the first photographs of the satellite, which allowed us to observe a dense, gaseous atmosphere. Thanks to this, the Voyager 1 mission controllers decided that the probe should make a closer approach to this Moon, so it was diverted from its initial trajectory to make a closer flyby of Titan at less than 6,500 km.
Unfortunately, Voyager 1 had no instrument to penetrate Titan’s fog, so data could only be obtained from its upper atmosphere.
The mission that revealed the secrets of Titan
The Cassini-Huygens mission was a joint space project of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) that aimed to explore the Saturnian system, particularly the planet Saturn and its fascinating moons. This mission represented a milestone in space exploration, providing invaluable information about the composition, atmosphere, and hidden secrets of this distant corner of the solar system.
Why should we return to Titan?
Titan is a very hostile world for life as we know it, especially for humans. Temperatures on Titan are frigid, having an average temperature of -290 degrees Fahrenheit ( -180 degrees Celsius ).
Dragon Mission fly
Although, at present, there is no proposal for a human-crewed mission whose main objective is to study the Titan satellite, there is an uncrewed mission that has that objective.
This is the Dragon space mission Fly. This proposed NASA mission is designed to explore Saturn’s enigmatic moon, Titan, fully.
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Credits: Ron Miller, Mark A. Garlick / MarkGarlick.com ,Elon Musk/SpaceX/ Flickr
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00:00 Intro
00:44 Titan the giant of Saturn
3:40 Xanadu Area of Titan
4:00 TItan Mission
7:20 Why we should return
9:03 dragon mission fly
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#insanecuriosity #titan #saturnmoon
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Lorenzo
Great info, thanks. I find it humorous how the voyager probes are always shown with their parabolic dish pointing in the direction they are going and not at earth where they are coming from.😅
If Titan is As big or Bigger than Mercury, then wouldn't that designate Titan more as a Planet than a moon?
Which in turn would mean Titan could be the so-called Illusive Nighth Plaent?
It's not necessary to reach Titan now. We barely made progress on Mars. A 7-year trip to Titan is long. It's going to be quite some time before we can send people there as the time frame is too long. If they arrive there and leave immediately, you're talking about close to 15 years. Ain't nobody got time for that! 😅
Really dumb question – it's hard because it's so far away!
Send the tardigrades!
I do believe that it's possible.
7 ads in a 12 min video is RIDICULOUS you’re not that strapped for money. Do better please
Did you not see Avatar?
I wonder if Dragon Fly is a good use of limited resources?
Yep, compared to the Moon and Mars Titan is much more benign. There are only 2 cons in regards to Titan. Distance and Temperature. But both of those can be overcome. Big pros are the fact the moon has a substantial atmosphere. Which is only 1.4 times denser than Earth, so if we would place habitable domes their, they are not required to be pressurized. Same goes for spacesuits. No need to pressurize them. Another big plus is the atmosphere providing protection against deadly solar and cosmic radiation. On the Moon and on Mars there is no such protection. And the dense atmosphere in combination with the low gravity makes flights very economic and even a human could fly on it's own power. Imagine that, just wearing a spacesuit that insulated you 100%, but isn't pressurized, you put some flaps on your arms and you can fly away. What a delight. And then the chemicals on Titan that makes it memorizing. Imagine how it even looks; a complete 'sea' of liquid methane? Would it be transparent? Would it be viscous? Are there waves? Can you even swim in it (assuming your suit is really 100% insulated). How would a shoreline of a methane sea look like? So fascinating, forget the Moon and Mars, both of those are dead, dusty and boring.
"Space is big, I mean really big."
Well according to Thanos, the planet doesn't have finite resources
I don't believe anyone living today will never see humans on Titan. There is just no compelling reason to spend that kind of money and human effort.
The change of velocity required to get from earth orbit to Saturn is about the same as the change in velocity required to get from Earth's surface to low earth orbit.
Well, for one thing, there are no flights that go to Titan. Nor any ships. No roads lead to Titan.
The only way to get there is by walking for a really really really long time. Also, you need to be wearing very very thick clothes because I heard it gets very cold over there.
Now that I think about it, I am good sitting on my warm couch watching YT and making silly comments. You can try going to Titan, if you want. 😏
Titan was like most planets. Too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction, I offered a solution.
They have to go back, otherwise they’ll never find the drunk fish.
Because it's very far… You're welcome
Because it is more important for USA to keep the world in War
I love the 2023 mentality that we go to titan for hydrocarbons.
By the time we have the capacity to get there, we will be very much beyond our hydrocarbon lifestyles
Answer: LONG distance!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought the only thing that creates Methane is organic lifeforms …
That's what she said
After the Moon, Titan should be the destination of choice for human expansion in space.
Viagra platter at Hooters?