Pegasus Research Consortium

NASA Wants To Send A Submarine To Study Saturn's Largest Moon Titan.

Spaceships are great, but to explore the weird world that is Titan, a space sub might make more sense. Fortunately, NASA is already working on a design.


(http://cnet2.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r/2015/02/15/3f3287c3-d642-4ae0-a8de-e6d463c67f69/thumbnail/670x503/f8cc8a89f733c16b873138b1bc4a3c60/titan-sub2.jpg)

I think we can now officially say that NASA's real-life mission concepts have met, if not exceeded, the wildest dreams of Jules Verne and the other early futurists. Verne saw us flying around the world, traveling to the center of the Earth (not a great idea, it turns out) and to the moon, but I bet he never imagined that just 110 years after his death, we'd be working on a robot submarine to probe the flammable seas of a distant world.

Truth can be stranger than fiction, indeed.

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Earlier this month, NASA published the below video introducing its concept submarine designed to explore Kraken Mare, one of the methane seas on Titan, the remarkably strange moon circling Saturn. Even if it were possible for humans to go swimming in Titan's seas, it might not be advisable. It would be something like swimming in a freezing ocean of liquefied natural gas.

Clearly, this is a mission meant for a drone, specifically a nuclear-powered, single-ton robotic submarine equipped with a seafloor camera and sampling system as described in a brief (PDF) on the concept posted online.

Getting the sub to Titan presents a bit of challenge since it won't fit into the sphere-cone shaped landers that have typically been used for planetary exploration in the past. However, it could fit into a space plane like Boeing's X-37, which was recently orbiting the Earth for some sort of classified, likely spy-ish US Air Force mission. The space plane would make a soft water landing on Kraken Mare and jettison the sub, or possibly drop it at low altitude via a parachute.


http://www.cnet.com/news/see-the-submarine-nasa-wants-to-send-to-saturns-moon-titan/


NASA released this mission-concept video about sending a submarine to explore the liquid .


https://screen.yahoo.com/nasa-wants-send-submarine-study-194253497.html

Quote from: astr0144 on February 17, 2015, 11:58:06 AM
NASA Wants To Send A Submarine To Study Saturn's Largest Moon Titan.
Spaceships are great, but to explore the weird world that is Titan, a space sub might make more sense. Fortunately, NASA is already working on a design.

Sigh... NASA and their ideas :

They already designed a sub for off world  Been testing it for years in the Arctic and Antarctica

Called ENDURANCE and it was supposed to go to EUROPA drill under the ice and go check it out

ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer)

(http://umlr.net/04images/Europa/depthx-CMU.jpg)

We covered this years ago but never heard anymore

Then we found they changed the name...

DEPTHX ~ Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer

Same damn craft LOL just a new name and a new project :P

(http://umlr.net/04images/Europa/450px-Depthx.jpg)

They KNOW there is liquid water there because of the plumes

(http://umlr.net/04images/Europa/PIA17659-Europa-WaterPlume-ArtistConcept-20131212.jpg)

http://umlr.net/03files/DEPTHX.html

Wow I've never heard of this before  :o

Whats really odd is that when I searched this on youtube I find a company called Stone Aerospace.  Video's here are posted in date format, first video was latest uploaded:

QuoteStone Aerospace is a Texas-based company dedicated to the exploration and commercialization of the frontiers we know of and the discovery of the ones yet to come. Our people are both seasoned expeditionary scientists and explorers -- who personally use the equipment we design in demanding environments -- and best-of-class engineers and coders. We are novel, lean, fast moving, and cutting-edge. We specialize in autonomous systems, mobile robotics, fiber-tethered and Wi-Fi controlled vehicles, re-entry vehicles, novel spacecraft architectures, propulsion, structures and dynamics, manned systems, closed-cycle life support, spacesuit PLSS and spacecraft ECLSS systems, 3D mapping (both laser radar and high resolution sonar), guidance and navigation systems, auto-docking systems (ladar, optical, gps-aided, imu-aided, dvl-aided, sonar, usbl), embedded devices, high density power systems, head-up displays, and smart devices.

All their video's are linked to uz  ;D

ENDURANCE testing at Johnson Space Center

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ms7LucOKblk


High resolution map of The Quarries

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNBJdpe9SQY


ENDURANCE 2009 Antarctica Field Season in under 4 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaKuEuhePHg


3D maps produced by DEPTHX of the Zacatón Cenote System

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHEQfaqYkwI


ENDURANCE Makes an Autonomous Return Home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U-xxYJ2zSY


Exploration of Cenote La Pilita by DEPTHX

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGzt59V9WHQ