Details on the TiME Space Mission Emerge

As we announced earlier today, NASA has decided on the three proposals it will pursue further for a major space exploration mission, to be launched in 2016. One of them is the Titan Mare Explorer (TiME) probe, which could finally establish a human presence on Saturn's largest moon.

The NASA Cassini orbiter, which has been investigating Saturn, its rings and its moons since July 1, 2004, has thus far provided tantalizing evidence of an interesting world covered by a thick atmosphere.

Radar images have revealed that the object features extensive lakes made up of liquid hydrocarbons, such as methane and ethane. The features can be found in abundance at the North Pole, and to a smaller extent at the South Pole, but this setup may in fact change with Titan's seasons.

Information collected by Cassini also suggest that a liquid ocean may exist right beneath the moon's surface, and that active cryovolcanoes may be active on its surface. Its nitrogen-rich may also contain organic molecules, capable of forming DNA without needing water.

In fact, there are numerous aspects about Titan that merit additional studies. Many experts say that it provides the best bet to finding alien life, elsewhere in the solar system. The TiME mission was developed as a response to the need for such investigation.

Titan Mare Explorer would be a spacecraft that would parachute itself through Titan's hazy atmosphere, and then softly land on a hydrocarbon lake. Direct investigations are the only methods that can reveal more about the object at this point.

“With its organic dunes, lakes, channels and mountains, Titan has one of the most varied, active and Earth-like surfaces in the solar system,” explains Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Cassini radar scientist Ralph Lorenz.

“Now we see changes in the way Titan rotates, giving us a window into Titan's interior beneath the surface,” adds the expert, who is also the lead author of the new paper describing the project.

If selected, TiME would be managed by JHU APL, in Laurel, Maryland. The principal investigator of the mission would be Ellen Stofan, who is based at Proxemy Research Inc., in Gaithersburg, Md.

“We found it very exciting to use some measurements that seem in contradiction and to try to reconcile them. It was like putting together pieces of a puzzle. Our analysis strengthens the possibility that Titan has a subsurface ocean, but it does not prove it undoubtedly,” adds Rose-Marie Baland.

The researcher holds an appointment as a planetary scientist at the Royal Observatory of Belgium in Brussels, Daily Galaxy reports. At this point, the APL team is bound to receive $3 million from NASA to refine the project further.

Excluding launch vehicle costs, the mission has a funding cap of $425 million.