A planned mission will see a boat transported to space where it will sail the seas on another planet
A robotic boat is to be sent to Titan, the largest of Saturn’s moons, where it will float on an ocean of liquid methane and ethane in surface temperatures of around minus 180 degrees Centigrade.
The Titan Mare Explorer, nicknamed TiME, is the proposed spacecraft lander that if selected by NASA will be parachuted on to Titan’s chemical sea for a 96-day mission sometime between 2016 and 2018. Sensors will identify Titan’s complex chemistry and cameras will record the ocean’s surface, as well as clouds, storms, rain, and the moon’s orange skies.
TiME is one of three mission proposals selected by NASA for further study before NASA makes a final decision on whether or not it will proceed with it next year.
