8 ms·
NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moon Titan
- ianai 8y agoIs there a way to throw money at specific NASA projects? Ie a way for the crowd to indicate interest. I doubt it, but nasa is pretty popular
- mrfusion 8y agoThey should sell something. Maybe you can buy a vote on where it goes. Even if scientist proposed their top ten picks and then people could pay to vote on them. Or also naming rights would be a cool way to get funding. Or early access to the imagery. Lots of stuff they could do.
- ianai 8y agoRight, the problem in allowing contributions is definitely clear as day. But a work around is clearly possible through indicating directions for taxes. I remember hearing that idea proposed somewhere, not sure where. You can already elect to add some money to public election campaigns on federal taxes, for instance. Maybe down the road private operations like SpaceX will be funded enough for stuff like this. Doubtful though.
- JetSpiegel 8y ago> indicating directions for taxes That's what political parties are for. The current US duopoly on representation is a problem.
- Something1234 8y agoThey do a shit job at it. Quite honestly being opposites on each of the issues is not helping. I think that having a points distribution on every tax return would be amazing. It need not have any legal force, just be released publicly so all can see. Brings a feeling of real impact.
- JetSpiegel 8y ago> They do a shit job at it. That was my point. I other countries there are bigger range of views to choose, other than the US "radical neoliberalism" and "moderate neoliberalism".
- anticensor 8y agoNo, government agencies may not accept targeted donations due to anti-corruption law.
- mellow-lake-day 8y agoApparently it's legal in some cases when you give it directly to people >Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/putins-proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/put...
- corndoge 8y agoThis partisan op-ed is barely tangentially related to the OP. So tired of seeing worn out sensationalist divisive news where it obviously doesn't belong.
- Ankaios 8y agoAt the moment, there's not even anyone there to receive a check. The agency is shut down.
- actualdc1 8y agoWhen did we start calling them drones instead of probes?
- maxxxxx 8y agoBecause it will fly around.
- mrfusion 8y agoThe headline says they’ll land it though.
- TaylorAlexander 8y agoYou’ve got to enter the atmosphere and come to a stop before you can deploy a drone on another world I would think (Venus notwithstanding).
- maxxxxx 8y agoIt's going to land and then fly to a new location from time to time.
- oliveshell 8y agoWe didn’t. This is a multicopter design that would be able to fly and hover in Titan’s thick atmosphere.
- kolinko 8y agoIf it flies like a drone, it's fair to call it a drone.
- auggierose 8y agoAs long as it is not Jupiter's Europa, because, as we know, we should leave it alone.
- mabbo 8y agoI think the real breakthrough on some of these probes to other planets isn't so much how they move around, but the growing possibility of self-directed action. Mars is between 3 light minutes and 22 light minutes away. Every command takes at least that long to reach a probe on Mars, then the same amount of time for NASA to be told "Yes, I heard you and did that". The Curiosity rover has been on Mars for 6 years. It can travel 90m/hour. Theoretically, it could have moved 3,400km by now- that's more than once around the equator of Mars. It's managed almost 20km. While I'm sure there was much to pause and study, I cannot fathom that it could not have done more in it's time were it not constantly waiting for commands. Saturn is, at closest approach, more than 1 light hour away. I feel as though there's a real need to put a generic computer system that can be reprogrammed after launch into orbit around whatever planet we're studying. Give it higher-level commands of what we want to see happen, and send us back the highlight reel.
- maxxxxx 8y agoThat's all stuff we can try out on Earth first. Maybe build a rover that explores the whole of Antarctica or the Sahara autonomously. There is this idea of sending a submarine to Europa, melt it through the ice, explore the ocean and then come back up. It would be really cool but first we need to do this on Earth.
- kakarot 8y agoBiological contamination is absolutely critical. We fucked up Lake Vostok and that was in our own back yard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok
- Something1234 8y agoStupid question why don't we flood space craft with like everclear to steralize them? Not much could survive a bath of everclear.
- erohead 8y agoCuriosity's top speed across flat ground is just 0.09 mph (0.14 km/h).
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- cheeko1234 8y agoDragonfly is such an amazing concept. A nuclear powered quadcopter! http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/ http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/ >Unable to use solar power under Titan's hazy atmosphere, Dragonfly would use a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), like the durable Curiosity rover on Mars. Flight, data transmission, and most science operations would be planned during Titan's daytime hours (eight Earth days), giving the rotorcraft plenty of time during the Titan night to recharge.
- ianai 8y agoThere’s got to be a way to do that here. Ie replacing oil power generation with nuclear - say for the largest container ships.
- reaperducer 8y agoIt's already being done. Since 1955 in submarines. Since 1959 in ice breakers. Since 1962 in commercial shipping. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion
- kolinko 8y agoI wonder - why don't they use it for container ships and so on? I would imagine fuel savings there, and lower pollution would be immense.
- Armisael16 8y agoWell, it does result in enriched nuclear material floating all over the ocean, ripe for the taking by pirates or nation-states that we'd rather not have access.
- russdill 8y agoHopefully one day we'll see fusion powered container ships.
- sallop 8y agoDrone? Can it fly? Is it a quad copter? Why are we calling rover deones now? Clickbait?
- archgoon 8y ago> Can it fly? Yes. > Is it a quad copter? No; current designs are showing it to be an octocopter.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- furgooswft13 8y agoWell, I really hope they actually decide to do this then, as the concept of YAML (Yet Another Mars Lander, also a serialization language) is starting to bore me. Call me jaded, but I'm a bit tired of looking at pictures of dusty red rocks. I'm ready for the Spaceman Spiff landscapes and aliens surely to be found on the moons of the gas giants. Bring it NASA. Yes I realize the other option detailed in the article is a comet sample return. Meh, some comets do that for free you know? I say at this point, go big or stay on Earth.
- whatshisface 8y ago>the concept of YAML (Yet Another Mars Lander, also a serialization language) is starting to bore me. Call me jaded, but I'm a bit tired of looking at pictures of dusty red rocks They aren't doing it for the pictures of rocks, these missions have science goals you know.
- furgooswft13 8y agoDetailed study of dusty red rocks is all fine and dandy, but I don't think anyone is clamoring to land a man on Mars for #ScienceGoals. The most inspiring space achievements have all been trailblazing, and visually iconic. Think of Earthrise from Apollo 8, first Man on the Moon photo from Apollo 11, the lunar rover, the Blue Marble, the Space Shuttle itself, images from Hubble, landing 2 SpaceX rocket boosters at the same time etc. The Viking landings on Mars count too as well as the first rovers, but we're far into diminishing returns territory at this point. Given the reality of a limited budget, I'd prefer to see those resources spent towards doing something new, more challenging, and more interesting; such as landing on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn (or even a more durable modern lander/drone on Venus). Also I think there is plenty of science to be had on a geologically active moon with a significant atmosphere.
- zipwitch 8y agoIn the real. of achievable but not yet done, I want a Neptune and/or Uranus orbiter. A Neptune orbiter could give us a detailed look at both an ice giant and it's dwarf-planet-sized moon Triton, believed to be a captured KBO.
- isoprophlex 8y agoThis is amazing, and it makes so much sense. I hope this project gets off the ground (ha!). I want to know if there's animo acids or RNA floating around that lake.
- inamberclad 8y ago0.14g surface gravity and 1.45 times earth's atmospheric density might make this a very good way to get around. Edit: The low wattage of RTGs strikes again. This thing will do one hop every Titan day (16 Earth days) [0]. Edit 2: I'm conflating atmospheric pressure and density. However, it appears to have a 98.4% nitrogen atmosphere, so that seems reasonable. [0]: http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-Dragonfly/ http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-Dragonfly/
- wbl 8y agoThis is why we need the kilopower.
- DoctorOetker 8y ago>But incorporating extraterrestrial drone technology is a means to an end, not the final goal. they are really trolling the crackpots here by saying incorporating instead of implementing extraterrestrial drone technology...
- pytyper2 8y agoI would personally find more interest in an exploratory pit mine on the moon.