This decade promises to be an exciting time to explore space! The Perseverance rover landed on Mars and began conducting scientific operations. Later that year, the next-generation James Webb Space Telescope, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), and the Lucy spacecraft (the first mission to Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid) will be launched. Before the decade is up, missions will be sent to Europe and Titan to expand the search for signs of life in our solar system.
Currently, NASA plans to explore Titan (Saturn’s largest moon), send a nuclear-powered quadcopter to explore the atmosphere and surface (Dragonfly). Another option unveiled this year as part of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program is to send a sample return vehicle with Dragonfly, which can refuel with liquid methane extracted from the titanium surface.
This mission, known as titanium in-situ propellant sample return, offers several serious advantages over traditional sample return missions. Typically, missions to distant celestial objects either need to bring enough propellant for the return journey (which means a lot of additional mass and higher cost) or have a core battery that can provide power for several years.
Artist’s impression of the dragonfly on Titan’s surface. Photo credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins APL
The dragonfly mission, which is set to start by 2027 (and arrive at Titan by 2036), will spend 2.7 years exploring Titan as part of its main mission. Working this far from home requires a multi-mission thermoelectric radioisotope generator (MMRTG), which uses the heat created by the slow radioactive decay of plutonium to generate electricity.
Meanwhile, the sample return concept would provide fuel for the return flight using volatile elements harvested from the Titan’s surface. As you can see from the picture above, it would consist of a lander and an ascent vehicle. Once settled on the surface of Titan, they can support the dragonfly mission by receiving samples collected by the quadcopter.
Using resources harvested in situ, the lander could provide liquid methane and liquid oxygen fuel (generated from the local ice) to the ascent vehicle. That vehicle would then be loaded with samples collected by Dragonfly and then brought back to Earth. If no propellant of its own were transported, the mission’s sample recirculation element would have a lower overall mass and therefore would cost less to start.
Additionally, the sample return mission would exponentially increase the scientific returns on a Titan mission. For years scientists have hoped to get a better look at the lunar surface in order to study its special secrets. These include (but are not limited to) its dense nitrogen-rich atmosphere, its water cycle (but with methane), and the rich organic chemistry and prebiotic conditions on its surface.
This artist’s concept of a lake at the north pole of Saturn’s moon Titan shows raised edges and wall-like features as seen by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft around the Winnipeg Lacus of the moon. Photo credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech
The concept was developed by a team led by Steven Oleson, who heads the COMPASS Concurrent Spacecraft Design Team at NASA’s Glenn Research Center. NASA described this concept as part of the announcement of the NIAC Phase I Fellows 2021 as follows:
“Titanium sample return using in-situ propellants is a proposed titanium sample return using in-situ volatile propellants available on its surface. This approach to titanium is very different from all traditional in situ resource use concepts and will bring about a return of great scientific value towards planetary science, astrobiology and understanding the origins of life that is an order of magnitude more difficult (in the distance) and? V) than other sample return emissions. “
The concept is similar to the Mars sample return mission currently being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) to transport samples collected by the Perseverance rover. According to the current mission architecture, this sample return will also consist of a lander and a two-stage solid fuel ascent vehicle (developed by NASA) and a rover (developed by ESA) that would collect the samples.
This sample return mission is scheduled to start in July 2026 and land near the Perseverance rover (in the Jezero crater) by August 2028. The NIAC program, overseen by NASA’s Directorate for Space Technology Mission (STMD), seeks to engage American innovators and entrepreneurs promote innovative concepts and breakthroughs that contribute to space exploration.
A fish perspective of the titanium surface from the European Space Agency’s Huygens lander in January 2005. Photo credit: ESA / NASA / JPL / University of Arizona
For 2021, STMD selected 16 NAIC proposals to become Phase I Fellows, each of which will receive a grant from NASA of up to $ 125,000. After successfully completing an initial 9-month feasibility study, NIAC fellows can apply for Phase II awards. As Jenn Gustetic, director of early-stage innovations and partnerships within NASA STMD, stated in a recent NASA press release:
“NIAC fellows are known to dream big, suggesting technology that borders on science fiction and is different from research funded by other agency programs. We don’t expect them all to come to fruition, but we do recognize that providing a small amount of seed capital to NASA’s early research could bring great benefits in the long run. “
This is just one of several innovative proposals accepted for Phase I development under NASA’s NAIC program for 2021. While there may only be a handful (or none) fully implemented and going into space in the coming year, the program leads to inspired ideas that illustrate what the future of humanity in space will look like. To learn more, visit the 2021 NAIC Phase I Fellows page now.
Further reading: NASA-JPL, NASA-NAIC
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