TSSM Study Overview
Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM)
TSSM would launch in 2020 (2018 is also feasible), beginning a nine-year cruise on an Earth-Venus-Earth-Earth gravity-assist trajectory to the Saturn system, augmented for the first five years by solar electric propulsion.
At arrival, the spacecraft would perform an orbit insertion burn to capture into Saturn orbit. The montgolfière, targeted for Titan, would be dropped off just prior to the first Titan flyby (following Saturn orbit insertion). Data relay from the montgolfière would continue through its six-month mission via the orbiter telecommunications system. The lander element, targeted for Kraken Mare (a northern lake) would be dropped off at the second Titan flyby and the orbiter would perform dedicated science data capture and relay for the nine-hour length of the lander’s mission. During a two-year Saturn tour phase, the orbiter would perform seven close flybys of Enceladus as well as 16 Titan flybys.
Finally, the Titan orbit phase would commence with a Titan orbit insertion burn, placing the orbiter in an elliptical orbit that would be used for concurrent aerobraking and aerosampling. The orbit would be circularized over two months, beginning a 20-month Titan orbit phase.
Overview of Mission Timeline
TSSM Mission Data Return
The bulk of science data acquisition will occur during the Saturn tour, aerobraking at Titan, and Titan circular orbit. The montgolfière and lake lander data will be relayed by the orbiter to Earth during its Saturn tour.
Synergistic and complementary instruments carried by the separate mission elements maximize the overall scientific capability while maintaining a strong science return value for each independent element. With the goal to explore Titan as a system, the payloads provide instrumentation for remote sensing and in situ investigations. On the orbiter, remote sensing instruments provide a complete picture of the Titan system from space through the atmosphere to the surface and deep interior. These are complemented by detailed investigations performed on the in situ platforms: the montgolfière, circumnavigating Titan’s equatorial region, and the lake lander, which samples the methane/ethane lakes and the chemicals dissolved therein. The combined capability of the three mission elements will provide science return which exceeds that of each standing alone.
The science investigations that yield this rich return require returning to Earth a certain amount of data, a “number of bits” called the data volume. Baseline data return strategies more than meet this requirement. This chart shows the potential data volumes returned by orbiter instruments (blue curve) and in situ element instruments (magenta curve) as the prime missions progress.
Learn more about TSSM's Science Goals & Objectives
