Titan Mare Explorer

Titan Mare Explorer ( TiME ) was a planned lander, which was the largest moon of Saturn, Titan explore. It should be the first mission to investigate an alien lake on site. NASA was TiME by Proxemy Research as a groundbreaking exploration mission, originally as part of NASA's Discovery and Scout Mission Capability Expansion ( DSMCE ) concept and as a program of study proposed.

The mission was a suggestion, which was handed over to the Discovery Program of NASA. On August 20, 2012, NASA announced that it would give the Mars Lander InSight in preference to TiME and a third competitor, a comet probe. Would have been decided for this mission, the planned launch window would have fallen to January 2016. A possible alternative would be TiME to delay until it could be incorporated into the flagship mission tandem (Titan and Enceladus Mission ), which is planned for the 2020s.

TiME would be a low-cost, have been outer- planet mission to directly determine the organic compounds on titanium and the first nautical exploration of an extraterrestrial sea and, if possible, its coastlines could perform.

As Discovery mission, TiME would " Radioisotope Generator Advanced Stirling " suitable for first use of the newly developed to be tested before an expensive first at a low cost mission.

Landing target

Times should start using a booster rocket of the type Atlas 411 during a time window of 21 days beginning on the 17th January 2015 take place. For the mission of the lake Ligeia Mare was (78 ° N, 250 ° W ) is selected. He is with an extension of 100,000 km ², one of the largest methane lakes of Titan (one of which that have been discovered so far). The replacement target is the Kraken Mare.

Mission Objectives

The Titan Mare Explorer would have meant a single flight to Titan without investigations from orbit. Measurements and data transfer should begin only after the " Splashdown " ( Land of the spacecraft by parachute on the lake surface ) of the probe. The objectives of the mission were: