Balloons with hardware are a good way to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. However, this would require a large rocket, and experts suggest the SLS carrier, which is designed to send people to the Moon, as a possible solution.
Balloons on Titan
NASA experts have recently presented new ideas for exploring Saturn’s largest moon Titan with probes. They propose to use balloons and airships for this purpose. The idea of such autonomous devices is not new, but the realization of this project is really important.
In general, Titan is best suited to use this type of probe. It has a dense atmosphere with low gravity. Therefore, each cubic meter of gas in the cylinder provides significantly more lift than on Earth.
The only problem is that the equipment scientists want to send to Titan is really heavy. And therefore, the balloon itself should also be quite large. And it is necessary to provide acceleration and deceleration of the mission near this distant planet. Therefore, not every rocket can be used for this purpose.
SLS carrier
The experts propose SLS as a means to send the future probe. This carrier is now offered for launching Artemis program missions to the Moon. In 2022, the rocket has already provided an automatic overflight of our moon, but the next flight will not take place before 2026.
Engineers say they have several interesting probe designs, but the best ones have been developed by the Boeing Corporation, and among them there are even some that can walk. One project is a 150 m3 cylinder that can fly at altitudes up to 5 km. The other is a 400 m3 cylinder that can fly at an altitude of up to 20 km.
Both the first and second can carry large gondolas with equipment. Experts believe the probes will be able to operate in Titan’s atmosphere for years. The launch could take place in 2034-36, but the developers have other options.
SLS is not the only option
The big question regarding all of this is: is SLS really the best option? After all, it is an incredibly complex rocket, difficult to manufacture, and costs an incredible $2.5 billion dollars to launch. No wonder so many people are talking about alternatives.
For example, a Falcon Heavy rocket with a much smaller payload has already been selected to send another Dragonfly helicopter mission to Titan in 2028. So why not try using it to launch a slightly smaller airship there?
According to phys.org
