Titan Saturn System Mission - Science Goals and Objectives

Science Goals and Objectives

The major goals of the TSSM mission can be summarized under four categories:

• Explore Titan as a system
• Study Titan’s organic inventory and astrobiological potential
• Constrain Titan’s origin and evolution models
• Recover information on Enceladus and Saturn’s magnetosphere

At Titan, the science goals would be to provide information on such aspects as the composition of the surface and the geographic distribution of the various organic constituents; on the methane cycle and the methane reservoirs; on the ages of the surface features, and in particular on whether cryovolcanism and tectonism are actively ongoing or are relics of a more active past; on the presence or absence of ammonia, of a magnetic field and of a sub-surface ocean; on the chemistry that drives complex ion formation in the upper atmosphere; and on a large altitude range in the atmosphere, from 400–900 km, which remains poorly explored after Cassini. In addition, much remains to be understood about seasonal changes of the atmosphere at all levels, and the long-term escape of constituents to space.

TiME lander would splashdown on Ligeia Mare, a methane sea on Titan's northern hemisphere. It is believed that Titan’s methane cycle is analogous to Earth’s hydrologic cycle, with meteorological working fluid existing in liquid and gas phase. TiME would directly discern the methane cycle of Titan and help understand its similarities and differences to the hydrologic cycle on Earth. However, questions about the sources of re-supply of methane to the atmosphere remain to be answered. This world is built by organic activities which still operate and Cassini/Huygens findings suggest a world with a balance of geologic and atmospheric processes that is the solar system’s best analogue to Earth. Moreover, an interior ocean discovered by Cassini, deep underneath Titan’s dense atmosphere and surface is thought to be largely composed of liquid water. TSSM would be the first mission in the 50 years of space exploration, where an extensive and interdisciplinary in situ survey of active organic chemistry and climate on the land, on the sea, and in the air of another world will take place.