NASA is planning to develop a submarine and send it all the way to Saturn’s moon Titan to explore its mysterious ocean.
The US space agency wants to organize a possible mission to Titan’s largest sea, Kracken Mare, Science Daily reported.
Titan is the only known body in the solar system to have a considerable atmosphere which has its own methane cycle, similar to Earth’s water cycle. Methane exists in a liquid form, raining down on a landscape laced with hydrocarbons, forming rivers, valleys and seas.
The underwater explorer, or the autonomous submersible, would be designed to travel 2,000 kilometer (1,250 mile) on a ninety-day voyage to investigate the depths of the alien marine atmosphere.
“This craft will autonomously carry out detailed scientific investigations under the surface of Kraken Mare, providing unprecedented knowledge of an extraterrestrial sea and expanding NASA’s existing capabilities in planetary exploration to include in situ nautical operations,” NASA said in a statement.
“Sprawling over some 1,000 kilometers, with depths estimated at 300 meters, Kraken Mare is comparable in size to the Great Lakes and represents an opportunity for an unprecedented planetary exploration mission,” it added.
Since water is the basic building block of life, it will be possible to see if extraterrestrial life exists.
The craft is expected to weigh approximately 1000 KGs and would be equipped with a range of imaging sensors.
