Deciding on which outer solar system moon to visit

sheeny (Al) · #1 23-01-2009, 08:24 AM

This article from Nature discusses to competition between rival missions to an outer solar system moon.

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/0901...l/457366a.html

Should it be Europa or Titan?

Just for fun, we'll have our own poll...

Al.

renormalised (Carl) · #2 23-01-2009, 09:15 AM

There you go Al, it's unanimous, 100%. We goto Europa!!

Chippy (Nick) · #3 23-01-2009, 10:42 PM

It's a tough one because both are very intriguing and beckon with a lot of potentially amazing discoveries. I vited Titan because it is the most "Earth like" object in our solar system in many respects!

Outbackmanyep · #4 24-01-2009, 11:55 AM

Sometimes i can't understand scientists, why not just go where the water is!!!!

OneOfOne (Trevor) · #5 25-01-2009, 10:12 AM

Ultimately Titan is the more "doable" as you don't have to melt your way through a huge block of ice. Once through ice, you are on whatever battery power you have left. Titan, you just put out a parachute and either land on dirt or land in a methane lake and pop out a life raft. With all the methane floating around, maybe they can utilise this as a source of energy to power the craft for a long period of time. Having done Titan...they would be in a better position to know more of the problems they may encounter at Europa, and be more likely to succeed.

sheeny (Al) · #6 27-02-2009, 07:56 AM

Nasa and ESA have decided...

(no doubt firmly infuenced by our poll

11:9)

...and the winner is...

Europa!

Actually plans are to send two orbiters: the NASA made one will explore Europa, the ESA made one will explore Ganymede. Planned launch date is 2020, with ETA of 2026.

A mission to Titan is likely to go ahead after that, but more time is needed to plan it.

More here:

http://www.nature.com/news/2009/0902.../4571070d.html

Al.