A Boat to Sail the Methane Lakes of Titan

FIRST COMMENT this is a pretty cool idea, though i don't no if i want to live in a chilly -290F

-Captain Science-

Lakes of liquid methane? Methane rain? Titan must smell like crap...

Dewar flasks aerogell and aluminunized mylar are all excellent insulators, it's easier to warm a place than cool one so this would me much more doable than Venus. I'm just sad that everything to do with space takes so long.

Here's an idea that can make this exploration of our fascinating solar system pay for itself...
Step 1: "Advertise Titan Boat Probe" pay-per-view event at Superbowl XLIV and NASCAR races
Step 2: Collect ~$3.41 billion from pay-per-view customers
Step 3: Launch Titan Boat probe to land in beautiful Kraken Mare and begin its survey
Step 4: 2 days later, launch Titan Camera probe to land on hill overlooking beautiful Kraken Mare --- Wait 2 years.
Step 5: Enable Titan Camera probe video feed of beautiful Kraken Mare for said pay-per-view customers
Step 6: Initiate a 30-minute countdown sequence that includes a laser show beamed from the Titan Boat probe while playing a rousing selection of Kid Rock and Bon Jovi tunes
Step 7: At 00:00 minutes, Titan Boat probe detonates its nuclear fuel supply in beautiful, yet oh-so-flammable, Kraken Mare
Step 8: K - A - B - O - O - M ! ! !
Step 9: Email YouTube link of video from said event to Green Peace with a cc to Al Gore

Sorry, Wezlee. In order to have a "kabloom" one needs sufficient oxygen, which Titan lacks.

And this "boat" is a stupid idea. Titan's gravity is negligible but it's atmosphere is extremely dense, which means that a flying probe would be much more versatile.

But a flying probe would be impossible to control at those ranges. An air-floating probe, however, could work.

The real issue with non-air probing is the necessary stability to aim a camera where you need it to go with a several minute signal drag.

captain science, i hope you don't really think methane has an odor...whenever you "smell methane" (farts, natural gas) you're smelling other chemicals, not the methane itself. A fart is a mixture of many gasses and its those other ones that smell. Natural gas has the smell of rotting flesh added to it so you can notice when there is a leak.

As for the boat idea I like it. While you can cover a lot more ground flying above the planet you don't get a chance to analyze any samples except for atmosphereic ones. The boat can still analyze atmosphere samples, just not at the higher altitudes. Plus then we get to peer under the surface of the liquid to see how similar it looks to our own ocean floor. In my mind if we have the chance to boat around in the only other place with liquid we should check it out, that way we can commercialize it and let Carnival start to offer Titan cruises.

Titan is so strange...Still, you have to admit the thick clouds are interesting-DaSonicMan

A very good idea.
My one doubt pertains to the choice of 'lakes'.
The larger the lake the more likely the 'rough waters' - though I admit I don't know what a methane lake would like under energies that could produce strong motion of the liquid.

If there really is a possibility of high methane waves then a smaller lake would be a better choice for catastrophe avoidance and stability for getting proper photos.

I don't think the navigational precision required for the reduced landing space would be that much more difficult to overcome. Its all math and accurate propulsion.

@deegeezee
im sure a nuke does not need "sufficient oxygen" to detonate

anyways....great idea...one of NASAs better ideas :)

My question is: Why are they talking about nuclear powered engines, when they will be floating in lake of methane... A clean source of energy...? Maybe after seeing our current (earth) bound situation, we should be a little more conciseness about the risk of a catastrophic nuclear disaster on another planet that we want to explore!!!