Tandem (space probe)

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TandEM ( T itan and E nceladus M ission; NASA working title: Titan Saturn System Mission - TSSM ) is a mission to Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus proposed by ESA and initially independently of it in a similar form by NASA . Is planned, according to the acronym abbreviated mission name, the orbiter - spacecraft which is to float freely in the atmosphere of titanium, which has a Lander and a balloon leads among other experiments with them. The start of the mission is proposed for the period after 2020, with the arrival in the Saturn system around nine years later and the lander and balloon missions one year later.

  • The orbiter

  • The balloon

  • The countries

motivation

Cryovolcano on Titan photographed by Cassini
Model of the 'cold geysers' on Enceladus

The Cassini-Huygens space probe, which went into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004, discovered surprising details in the years that followed. The landing capsule Huygens fell on a parachute on the second largest moon in our solar system , the Saturn moon Titan, and photographed and analyzed the surface. Among other things, lakes made of hydrocarbons , cryovolcanoes (volcanoes that eject ice instead of hot lava), cloud fields, dunes, mountain ranges, water ice and much more were discovered.

Using the relatively small moon Enceladus, Cassini discovered that its surface consists of water ice and revealed the existence of geysers that spew water ice crystals and water vapor hundreds of kilometers into space. Another mystery is a system of blue grooves or canyons, so-called tiger stripes.

These realizations that both moons are continuously changing and the presence of water ice and maybe even liquid water and organic molecules make them the best candidates for finding extraterrestrial life in our solar system.

In addition, the Cassini space probe discovered that the amount of ethine and hydrogen in the atmosphere is very small. Researchers believe that these gases are absorbed by or on the surface. In addition to chemical processes, living beings that live from these substances and convert them into methane could also be the cause. Tandem's landers could explore these reactions or find out if there is life on Titan.

The tandem mission was designed in the context of the ESA Cosmic Vision program, in which goals and projects for space travel for the next 20 years or so are being developed.

mission

Artistic impression of the titanium surface
Enceladus photographed by Cassini

The first of the two space probes is planned as an orbiter that will swing into orbit around Titan and will previously complete several close flybys of Enceladus. The orbiter is said to drop penetrators and landers over Enceladus , which will then gently touch down on Enceladus or penetrate deep into the surface in order to find out whether liquid water exists under the ice crust and whether primitive life could exist there. He should also take a closer look at Enceladus from the orbit. In the following, the orbiter is steered into a stable orbit around Titan, from where it examines it and serves as a transmission station for the other spacecraft that follow.

The second spacecraft is planned as an equipment carrier that will bring a lander and a balloon to Titan. The lander is supposed to land on Kraken Mare , an ethane / methane lake near the north pole of Titan and determine its composition, depth and many other things. Due to the smog in the Titan atmosphere and its great distance from the sun, the lander cannot be operated by solar cells, but only by a radionuclide battery . The centerpiece, however, is the balloon, which moves freely in the atmosphere. It is supposed to investigate the atmosphere at the equator at medium altitude and explore the various regions of the surface and also descend to enable closer explorations. After the two balloons from Vega 1 and Vega 2 in the atmosphere of Venus , this would be the third research balloon in the gas envelope of another celestial body.

The mission is planned and developed in cooperation with more than eleven European nations as well as the USA, Japan, the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. It is expected to cost up to five billion euros, but with the prospect of detecting organic molecules and primitive life forms outside the earth for the first time , it could be very worthwhile.

status

The project is designed and developed by the TandEM consortium and competes with other projects in the ESA Cosmic Vision program. When ESA -Ministerratstreffen 2008, no final selection was made. In February 2009 it was decided by NASA and ESA that both the TSSM / TandEM and the Jupiter Mission Europa Jupiter System Mission / Laplace would be further studied on the basis of a balancing study carried out jointly by NASA and ESA, whereby the Europa Jupiter System Mission is the original start date in 2020 and thus given priority over time.

Web links

Commons : Tandem  collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ sci.esa.int
  2. ↑ Solar System Strategic Exploration Plans ( Memento from August 5, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b c d e f http://www.lesia.obspm.fr/cosmicvision/tandem/docs/Tandem_Presentation.pdf (link not available)
  4. ↑ Researchers find clues for extraterrestrial life. In: Spiegel Online . June 4, 2010, Retrieved June 4, 2010 .
  5. ↑ Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Ed.): What is Consuming Hydrogen and Acetylene on Titan? June 3, 2010, arxiv : 0911.1860 (English).
  6. ↑ NLO: Signs of living beings on Saturn's moon Titan . In: Die Welt , June 7, 2010
  7. ↑ esa.int
  8. ↑ space.com
  9. ↑ Life scouts target Saturn's moons . Mirror online
  10. ↑ esa.int