{"id":121,"date":"2024-11-22T18:44:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T23:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/?p=121"},"modified":"2025-02-27T00:00:10","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T05:00:10","slug":"journey-to-titan-planet-exploration-project-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/2024\/11\/22\/journey-to-titan-planet-exploration-project-pt-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Journey to Titan – Planet Exploration Project Pt. 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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In the Planet Exploration Project, we have to choose any celestial body in the Solar System and design a vehicle that we will transport my team and I 5 km to and back on its surface. My team and I have chosen Saturn’s largest moon — Titan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An image of Titan taken by the Cassini orbiter<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Titan is an icy moon with a dense golden atmosphere composed mainly of nitrogen and methane. It contains a liquid cycle with rain, lakes and seas, and evaporation. It may also contain a subsurface ocean under the ice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a radius of 2574 kilometers, Titan is the second biggest moon in the Solar System, larger than even Mercury. The size of Titan gives it more gravity (around 14%) than some other large moons, such as Enceladus (1%) and Ceres (3%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Titan compared to the Moon (upper left) and the Earth (right)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Titan is the only moon in the Solar System that has a thick atmosphere that’s slightly denser than Earth’s (around 60% greater) and through sunlight and high-energy particles in Saturn’s magnetic field, it contains a variety of carbon-based organic compounds. Titan’s atmosphere is also dense enough to absorb cosmic rays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Titan’s internal structure, showing its layers of ice and possible subsurface ocean.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are many reasons our team chose Titan as our moon. From a thick atmosphere that would offer substantial lift for any flying vehicles as well as low gravity, along with methane and ethane lakes which can be used as fuel sources, Titan is pretty much the perfect choice. However, there are still challenges we have to tackle while exploring the yellow moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest challenges is the surface temperature — a whopping -182 \u00b0C (~90K), due to its distance from the Sun and its dense atmosphere. Titan receives about 1% of Earth’s sunlight, which also makes it very dark. Batteries and electric motors fail at around -20 \u00b0C, and most electric components fail at 0 \u00b0C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our second challenge is that Titan’s environment cannot be simulated in our current project. To test our prototype, we will have to use creative solutions and out-of-the-box thinking to make the most out of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiden<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SOURCES
H\u00f6rst, S. M. (2017), Titan’s atmosphere and climate, J. Geophys. Res. Planets<\/em>, 122, 432\u2013482, doi:10.1002\/2016JE005240<\/a>.
Kvorka, J., & \u010cadek, O. (2022). A numerical model of convective heat transfer in Titan\u2019s subsurface ocean. Icarus<\/em>, 376<\/em>, 114853.
McKay, C., Coustenis, A., Samuelson, R., Lemmon, M., Lorenz, R., Cabane, M., Rannou, P., & Drossart, P. (2001). Physical properties of the organic aerosols and clouds on Titan. Planetary and Space Science<\/em>, 49<\/em>(1), 79\u201399. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/s0032-0633(00)00051-9
McKay, C. (2016). Titan as the abode of life. Life<\/em>, 6<\/em>(1), 8. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/life6010008
https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.icarus.2021.114853
Mitchell, J. L., & Lora, J. M. (2016). The climate of Titan. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences<\/em>, 44<\/em>(1), 353\u2013380. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1146\/annurev-earth-060115-012428
Zebker, H. A., Stiles, B., Hensley, S., Lorenz, R., Kirk, R. L., & Lunine, J. (2009). Size and shape of Saturn\u2019s moon Titan. Science<\/em>, 324<\/em>(5929), 921\u2013923. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1126\/science.1168905
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In the Planet Exploration Project, we have to choose any celestial body in the Solar System and design a vehicle that we will transport my team and I 5 km to and back on its surface. My team and I have chosen Saturn’s largest moon — Titan. An image of Titan taken by the Cassini […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pep"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.stgeorges.bc.ca\/aidenh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}