Space exploration has always been an exciting venture for man. Ever since the days of Galileo and Kepler, looking to the stars and yearning to be among the cosmos has inspired critical thought and discussion. Now, NASA, in a recently released video, conceives a time when submarines could explore the deep methane lakes on one of Saturn’s moons.
With 150 moons and moonlets around the gas giant, only 53 have official names. So, when NASA’s Glenn Research Center announced that its concept submarine’s first mission would be to explore a lake on Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and the only satellite in the solar system with a major atmosphere, one can only imagine the nerdy glee.
The liquid methane lake known as Kraken Mare is, according to a 2014 statement proposing the idea, “comparable in size to the Great Lakes and represents an opportunity for an unprecedented planetary exploration mission.”
The video animation, which you can watch below, was developed for NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts Program, and is sure to blow your mind wide open. It also will be discussed at the 46th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference set for March 16-20 in Texas.
NASA is proposing that the conceptual submarine would be launched into space to Titan, making the trip via a spaceplane carrier in the cargo area of a modified Air Force X-37 (PDF). Upon safely landing, the device would submerge itself into the Kraken Mare, where it would collect and analyze samples from underneath its surface. Since the sub would spend most of its time in the liquid methane lake, it would be powered by a radioisotope generator that converts heat from radioactive pellets into electricity. This energy strategy is similar to what NASA currently uses on the Mars rover, Curiosity.
NASA’s purpose in visiting Titan over the countless other moons and moonlets offered by Saturn is because Titan’s hydrocarbon ocean environment may hold clues about how organic compounds evolved in the solar system. Titan has plentiful liquids, which has given scientists the belief that the moon could be favorable to microbial life. All in all, while this is just a concept, NASA and its scientists believe that this will be possible soon, and have added the mission to its list of solar system exploration ideas up for consideration by 2040.
