An artist's conception of AVIATR, an airplane mission to the second largest moon in our solar system: Titan. Credit: Mike Malaska 2011
It has been said that the atmosphere on Titan is so dense that a person could strap a pair of wings on their back and soar through its skies.
It’s a pretty fascinating thought. And Titan – Saturn’s largest moon – is a pretty fascinating place. After all, it’s the only other body in our solar system (besides Earth, of course) that has that type of atmosphere and evidence of liquid on its surface.
“As far as its scientific interest, Titan is the most interesting target in the Solar System,” Dr. Jason W. Barnes of the University of Idaho told Universe Today.
That’s why Barnes and a team of 30 scientists and engineers created an unmanned mission concept to explore Titan called AVIATR (Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance). The plan, which primarily consists of a 120 kg plane soaring through the natural satellite’s atmosphere, was published online late last month. (...)
Read the rest of AVIATR: An Airplane Mission for Titan (698 words)
© Lillian Ortiz for Universe Today, 2012. |
Permalink |
12 comments |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: airplane mission, AVIATR, Titan
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
No comments:
Post a Comment