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Imagine a craft that could soar throughout the hazy skies on one of the most bizarre worlds in our solar regulations -- Saturn's moon Titan -- followed by an easy arriving on its flammable seas made of liquid methane and new hydrocarbons.
Earlier this month NASA awarded a little grant to a former Boeing mechanic to develop "a flying, heavily instrumented boat that would seamlessly transition between soaring over Titan's atmosphere and sailing its lakes, much like a seaplane on Earth," according to a NASA statement.
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts, aka NIAC, program announced its latest round of phase one project scholarships, providing $175,000 for early-stage studies of proposed technology that could help future NASA missions.
One of the 14 grants awarded went to Quinn Morley of Gig Harbor, Washington, and his company Planet Enterprises for a project dubbed TitanAir.
"Somehow I took an idea inspired by a place coffee cup and a messy spill in the refrigerator, convinced a team of amazing people to work with me, and mixed it all into a winning NIAC idea over summer break," Morley, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at Washington State University, wrote on LinkedIn.
The spill made Morley think of astronaut Don Pettit's labors to create a microgravity-friendly coffee cup that uses capillary part to better control the flow of liquids. For some reason, Morley began to think about how a similar part could be put to use on an aircraft.
"I'm not sure how I was inspired to bring waters in through a permeable wing skin. I remember place on the idea for a while though, not bright what to do with a wing bullnose full of liquid."
Eventually the idea made a central component of TitanAir, "a relocatable lake lander" or "laker" that can land on a body of waters and collect some of that liquid through its permeable skin for scientific look. Perhaps no liquid in the solar system is more interesting and worth studying than the fluids that make up the bizarre lakes and seas of Titan.
Titan has a thick, hazy atmosphere that would be toxic to humans and it's far too cold for waters water, but just right for chilled hydrocarbons to have a liquid phase. It's believed that the moon is home to strange weather patterns involving rain that feeds rivers, lakes and oceans, but much of it is likely to be cool and flammable.
This isn't the first time NIAC coffers have gone toward exploring Titan's strange seas. A 2015 funding went to studying a concept for sending a submarine to delve deeper.
It's unlikely that TitanAir will make it to the outer solar regulations anytime soon. The next ride in that direction is NASA's Dragonfly mission launching in 2027 and inward in 2034. It includes a drone meant to look Titan's atmosphere, but has no plans to take a dip or a sip when there.
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