SAMPLE RETURN FROM TITAN

A new NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts study is looking at the surprising advantages of a mission to Saturn’s moon

We’ve launched missions across the Solar System and studied an increasing number of diverse targets, from gas giants to asteroids. But so far we’ve only brought physical samples back from the Moon and a couple of asteroids, with a Mars sample return a long-held ambition for NASA. However, Titan has such good resource options it may make sample return surprisingly easy for such a distant target.

Titan is arguably the most interesting target in the Solar System. It’s the tenth-largest body and has a dense atmosphere of mostly nitrogen and methane. A similar effect that makes the surface pressure of Venus crushingly high gives this small body an atmospheric pressure just slightly greater than Earth’s, making it the only surface beyond Earth where you wouldn’t need a spacesuit. The other thing this dense, cold atmosphere enables is a surface liquid cycle, giving Titan rain, rivers, lakes and seas like we see on our home planet, but rather than water they are methane.