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The 2009 JPL-Caltech Summer Titan SURF Project

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Titan Surface Sampling

Kevin Noertker.


July 3, 2008
Designing a sampling device for the titan mission is an interesting challenge. The first challenge we encounter is the diverse surface of Titan. Our goal in studying such places is to better understand the geology and chemistry at the surface. On a drier planet like Mars, this is more straight-forward. However for Titan, we have a vast array of interesting destinations. Equatorial sand dunes, high altitude methane and ethane seas, and complex valley systems created by flash floods might provide exciting geological, chemical and possibly biological information. Consequently, we have the interesting challenge of not only defining which portions of Titan are interesting to sample but also to create a device capable of sampling this wide variety of terrain. Additionally, this mission poses a challenge for the deployment of such a sampling device. Because of Titan's unique surface, an ultra mobile aerobot would traverse the vase expanses of its surface, utilizing the interesting wind patterns for control. However, sampling from such a platform is less than straight forward. Our device must be deployable from the aerobot platform, suggesting tight weight and size requirements. If the sampling device must return samples to the aerobot, how might these samples be transferred during windy flights? Conversely, if the sampling device does scientific study of samples while at the surface, how do we confidently relay the results back to the platform?


In the next few weeks, this project will try to define the goals for sampling on Titan, and will consider the possibility of using an autonomous sampling robot for achieving these goals. Other considerations will be determining the size and weight constraints for such a sampling device.