''Oceanus'' is a NASA/JPL orbiter mission concept proposed in 2017 for the New Frontiers mission #4, but it was not selected for development. If selected at some future opportunity, ''Oceanus'' would travel to Saturn's moon Titan to assess its

habitability Habitability refers to the adequacy of an environment for human living. Where housing is concerned, there are generally local ordinances which define habitability. If a residence complies with those laws it is said to be habitable. In extreme e ...

.Sotin, C., Hayes, A., Malaska, M., Nimmo, F., Trainer, M. D., Tortora, P.. (2017)
"OCEANUS: A New Frontiers orbiter to study Titan’s potential habitability."
19th EGU General Assembly, EGU2017, proceedings from the conference held 23–28 April 2017 in Vienna, Austria., p.10958 Studying Titan would help understand the early Earth and

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

s which orbit other stars. The mission is named after

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titan son of Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys, and the father of the river gods a ...

, the Greek god of oceans.

Mission overview

Titan is a world of two oceans. One ocean is on the surface and consists of mainly liquid methane ( ) and ethane ( ). The second ocean is under the surface and is made up of

brine Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...

. Titan is a moon of Saturn but Titan is a large moon that is comparable in size to many planets. Titan is about the size of Mercury and about 40% the size of Earth. Ancient Earth may have had a methane-rich atmosphere with a reducing chemistry like Titan does today. By observing Titan's organic processes at work, ''Oceanus'' could help understand the role of organic haze in the early Earth.Arney, G., Meadows, V., Domagal-Goldman, S., Deming, D., Robinson, T. D., Tovar, G., Wolf, E., and Schwieterman, E. (2016)
"Pale orange dots: The impact of organic haze on the habitability and detectability of earthlike exoplanets."
In AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts, volume 48 ''Oceanus'' would explore Titan and help understand habitability across the Universe. ''Oceanus'' was proposed to launch in February 2024 with a 10-year flight time to Titan. The spacecraft would spend two years orbiting Saturn and flying by Titan which would be followed by two years in a circular Titan orbit. The spacecraft would be powered by

solar panels A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a phot ...

. A small lake probe may also be considered for this mission. PIA18420-Titan-MethaneClouds-20140722

Abiotic

organic synthesis Organic synthesis is a special branch of chemical synthesis and is concerned with the intentional construction of organic compounds. Organic molecules are often more complex than inorganic compounds, and their synthesis has developed into one o ...

occurs high in Titan's atmosphere, and a vast water ocean lies far beneath the icy crust, setting up possible chemistry and environment for

abiogenesis In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothes ...

and potential habitable niches for microorganisms. ''Oceanus'' would conduct its science investigations with a multistage

mass spectrometer Mass spectrometry (MS) is an analytical technique that is used to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. The results are presented as a ''mass spectrum'', a plot of intensity as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio. Mass spectrometry is used ...

, an infrared camera that sees through the atmosphere, and a

radar altimeter A radar altimeter (RA), also called a radio altimeter (RALT), electronic altimeter, reflection altimeter, or low-range radio altimeter (LRRA), measures altitude above the terrain presently beneath an aircraft or spacecraft by timing how long it t ...

with great vertical resolution. ''Oceanus'' is led by Christophe Sotin, the chief scientist for Solar System exploration at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

Objectives

''Oceanus'' objectives are to reveal Titan's

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...

, geology, gravity, topography, collect 3D reconnaissance data, catalog the organics and determine where they may interact with liquid water. Titan has the basic ingredients for habitability: water, energy, and organic molecules. On a 4-year global exploration, ''Oceanus'' would characterize Titan's habitability globally, the photochemical synthesis of organics in the upper atmosphere, and determine places where they could potentially mix with liquid water.

Proposed development

The mission would be managed by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

/ JPL. JPL would also build parts of the radar and camera, and provide a mass spectrometer. The spacecraft would be developed by

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

and derived from their proven central core cylinder designs. This configuration has been successfully applied on ''

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter ''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, an ...

'', ''Juno'', ''

MAVEN MAVEN is an American spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of its atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water. The spacecraft name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolu ...

'', and ''

OSIRIS-REx OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) is a NASA asteroid-study and sample-return mission. The mission's primary goal is to obtain a sample of at least from 101955 Bennu, a carbonac ...

''. The spacecraft would use Ultraflex solar arrays made by

Orbital ATK Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems (NGIS) was a sector (business segment) of Northrop Grumman from 2018 through 2019. It was formed from Orbital ATK Inc. a company which resulted from the merger of Orbital Sciences Corporation and parts of Alli ...

. The Italian Space Agency ( ASI) and its contractor

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regarded him ...

would supply the digital portion of the radar altimeter and parts of the telecommunications system. On 20 November 2017 NASA selected two other proposals for additional concept studies: Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return (CAESAR), and

Dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threate ...

). Had ''Oceanus'' been selected, it would have launched in 2024.

Science team members

The Principal Investigator of the mission is Christophe Sotin (JPL), his Deputy is Alexander Hayes (Cornell University), the Project Scientist is Michael Malaska (JPL) and the legacy Project Scientist is Julie Castillo-Rogez. The Science Team come from JH APL, Lockheed Martin, JPL, ASI, Caltech, Cornell University, MIT, SWRI, University of Arizona, USGS, PSI, UCSC, University of Idaho, and several foreign universities.

References

External links

Landing on Titan: Pictures from Huygens Probe on Saturn Moon

NASA Gets Last Close Look at This Eerie Alien Moon

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oceanus (spacecraft) Missions to Saturn Titan (moon) New Frontiers program proposals Proposed NASA space probes Proposed astrobiology space missions

Mission overview

Objectives

Proposed development

See also

References

External links