NASA's Titan submarine is a conceptual design for a vehicle that would play a central role in a mission to Saturn's largest moon Titan. This unmanned submersible would be used to explore the oceans of liquid hydrocarbons located at Titan's poles.
Specifically, the Titan submarine would be used to explore the depths of Kraken Mare, the largest polar sea on Titan and one consisting of methane and ethane in a composition akin to liquified natural gas. The sea was discovered by the Cassini probe in 2007, covers an area of 400,000 square km and may be 160 meters deep.
While projects like Titan may seem extravagant and unnecessary to some, the fact of the matter is that humans' curiosity and appetite for exploration is fundamental to their survival, so it only makes sense to dream big and use technological innovation to explore other worlds.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Oceanic Exploration
- Develop submersibles for space exploration in hostile environments.
- Planetary Research
- Develop vehicles to gather information in unexplored environments.
- Liquid Hydrocarbon Exploration
- Innovate new technologies for exploration of liquid hydrocarbons in outer space.
Where This Applies
- Space Exploration
- Develop new vehicles and technologies for exploring planets and moons in our solar system.
- Marine Exploration
- Adapt existing marine technologies for exploration of extraterrestrial bodies with liquid hydrocarbon oceans.
- Robotics
- Innovate new robotics technologies and AI to develop submersibles for planetary exploration.
