Could This NASA Funded Space Plane Take Astronauts To Saturn’s Moon Titan?

Flight is easy on Titan, but how do you fuel a plane off-world?

Transcript

00:00NASA is planning a lot of trips out into the solar system in our search for life, and one

00:08of the top contenders is Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

00:11Titan has an atmosphere, in fact it's even denser than Earth's, and it has liquid water

00:15right on its surface, despite its extremely cold temperatures.

00:19So if we do ever travel to Titan, how will astronauts get around the moon?

00:22Well possibly in one of these.

00:24This is the new concept art for the Titan aircraft, a space plane that will ferry people

00:28around looking for life.

00:29But it's more than just a plane that can fly on another world, it's being built from

00:32the ground up to use Titan's atmosphere as fuel.

00:35Quinn Morley, part of Aerospace Think Tank Planet Enterprises, who came up with the concept

00:40had this to say about it.

00:41This Titan flyer concept aims to drink in methane condensation and organic material

00:45through a permeable section of leading edge wing skin.

00:48He says they're developing capillary features on the wing itself that collect and ingest

00:52the methane from the air then using it as fuel.

00:55And since Titan is less than half the size of Earth, with a thick atmosphere, flight

00:58is a breeze apparently, and it has plenty of lakes to land on.

01:01The idea has now been awarded $175,000 as part of a NASA grant to be further developed.