Australian_Geographic_-_December_2015_AU_

TITAN SCENE: MARK GARLICK / SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY; OTHERS: NASA

Exploring Kraken Mare:

NASA concept submarine

• ‘Bedrock’ of water-ice under
  ‘soil’ of water-ice powder and
  solid hydrocarbons, which
  form wind-blown dunes.


• Possible cryovolcanoes –
  fi ssures spewing a ‘lava’ of ice
  slush and other compounds.


• The icy bedrock is underlain
  by a global ocean of water
  and ammonia, over which
  this ice-shell fl oats.
  
  
  • The ice-shell fl exes under
    Saturn’s tidal pull, and rotates
    independently to the core.
  
  
  • Atmosphere has similar
    composition to Earth: mostly
    nitrogen, but with methane
    and other hydrocarbons.
  
  
  • Atmosphere forms an
    opaque orange haze, similar
    to the hydrocarbon smogs
    of our cities here on Earth.
    
    
    • Weather cycle of evapora-
      tion/rainfall, similar to Earth.
    
    
    • Atmospheric moisture is not
      water – resembles liquid nat-
      ural gas, with hydrocarbons
      such as ethane and methane.
    
    
    • Clouds of this ethane-
      methane mix usually cover
      a small percentage of Titan’s
      surface. When conditions
      are right, rain falls from them.
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  

TITAN: A WEIR D WOR LD

Strange activity. The surface of Titan has

rivers, lakes and seas of liquid methane,

and hydrocarbon compounds rain from

the sky. It also has dramatic mountains,

which are made from ice.

Diameter 5152km Orbits Saturn in 15.9 days

KRAKEN MARE

Earlier this year NASA released a video about a conceptual mission

to send a nuclear-power submarine probe to Titan. The idea is still

at a very early stage, but envisages a device that could travel for

approximately 2000km on a primary 90-day mission. Large arrays

of antennae would allow it to return to the surface to beam data

back to Earth, while also taking weather measurements. Instruments

would measure tides, currents and the composition of the oceans;

and cameras would also image the moon’s shorelines and surface

landscape. Use the viewa app to scan this page and see the fi lm.

Great lakes. A false colour

image of the north pole

region shows hydrocarbon

lakes and seas.

SURFACE IMAGER

ANTENNAE

WEATHER SENSOR

BALLAST

TANK

SAMPLE

COLLECTOR

DEPTH

SOUNDER

THRUSTERS

COMPUTER

COMMAND

CENTRE (INSIDE)

NUCLEAR

THERMOELECTRIC

GENERATOR

(INSIDE)