Tag: 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum

Wild Ideas for Stopping Climate Change

Panelists: Moderator Marty Bradley, technical fellow, Boeing; Martin Bunzl, philosophy professor, Rutgers University; Timothy C. Langenkamp, partner, Sidley Austin LLP; Douglas MacMartin, research professor, Caltech, and senior research associate, Cornell University

by Ben Iannotta, Aerospace America Editor-in-Chief

If humanity wants to get serious about stopping human-caused climate change, it’s going to have to actively intervene in the functioning of the atmosphere, said panelists Jan. 10 at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Exactly how is the question. Perhaps sulfur dioxide could be dispersed in the stratosphere to reflect solar radiation. Or carbon dioxide could be captured from the air on a vast scale. Or maybe giant sunshades could be erected in space to cool Earth.

Such geoengineering might sound extreme, but according to some scientists, active intervention is going to be the only way to stave off a planetary warming of more than 1.5 to 2 degree Celsius, the threshold beyond which increases in sea level could be severe.

“It is a controversial topic,” said Marty Bradley, a technical fellow at Boeing and the session moderator for “Geoengineering to Mitigate Climate Change — Is There a Role for Aerospace?”

Douglas MacMartin, a geoengineering theorist at Caltech, showed the audience a graph to make his case that adopting renewable energy and improving efficiency would not be enough to stop profound climate change.

In fact, he said it’s a “pipe dream” to think that cutting carbon emission can by itself solve the problem. He cautioned that we may already have crossed a threshold to meters of sea level rise.

Striking a similar note, Martin Bunzl, a philosophy professor at Rutgers University, said the Paris climate accord is “woefully inadequate” to keep warming to 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius. Bunzl lauded former Vice President Al Gore’s passion for the topic of climate change, but he said it’s simply not going to possible to turn around the energy economy over a span of just 20 years.

As MacMartin put it: “Unmitigated climate change may scare us more than risks of geoengineering.”

So what exactly are the possibilities for intervention?

MacMartin said it would be possible to cool the planet rapidly, perhaps over the course of few years, by “dumping crap” in the stratosphere in what’s called solar geoengineering or sometimes solar radiation management. The idea would be to mimic the effect of the 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, which spewed tons of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere and cooled the planet by half a degree Celsius.

MacMartin cautioned against jumping quickly to solar geoengineering, because it could have consequences that scientists do not yet understand.

“If you wanted to do it intelligently, that’s probably at least decades away,” he cautioned. “We need to ramp up research funding from our current level of, with a rounding error, zero,” he added.

In Bunzl’s view, “it’s inevitable that geoengineering has to be part of the portfolio of response.”

Of course, there are options other than solar radiation management. One idea is to capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Questions persist about how that could be done at the required scale.

Nevertheless, Timothy C. Langenkamp, a Houston-based lawyer who helps companies raise capital for oil and gas initiatives, predicted that his industry would be interested in this technology. He said a test plant could be built to show how synthetic fuels could be derived from atmospheric carbon dioxide.

The carbon would not be sequestered, but “at least you’re not adding to the problem” by drilling more fossil fuels, he said. The industry likes the idea because, if feasible, it comes with a built-in “repeatable revenue stream.”

Another idea would be to orbit sunshades, perhaps made of Kapton polymer like that of the sunshield of the James Webb Space Telescope. The challenge would be getting adequate surface area into orbit. MacMartin calculates this idea would require 270 Delta 4 rocket launches every day for the next 50 years.

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FAA Eager to Start Space Traffic Transition

Panelists: Moderator Moriba Jah, director of space object behavioral sciences, University of Arizona; Travis Blake, senior manager, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center; P.J. Blount, adjunct professor, University of Mississippi; Mike Gazarik, vice president of engineering, Ball Aerospace; Don Greiman, vice president and general manager of commercial space situational awareness, Schafer Corp.; retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms; George Nield, associate administrator of commercial space transportation, FAA

by Ben Iannotta, Aerospace America Editor-in-Chief

The U.S. is gravitating toward giving the FAA the job of warning satellite operators about potential collisions, something the Air Force currently does. At the moment, no one knows exactly how the FAA would manage space traffic and what role the industry might play.

The “Space Traffic Management” panel discussed those issues Jan. 11 at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Would the shift mean regulations and rules similar to those the FAA makes to manage air traffic? Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Susan Helms said satellite operators are definitely “scared” of that possibility. She noted that the U.S. military’s Joint Space Operations Center, which tracks space objects and alerts civilian operators, does not have authority to require satellite operators to maneuver or take other actions.

The FAA’s George Nield jumped to clarify the situation: “FAA has no intention of immediately” establishing regulations. If that is going to come, he said, “that is many years off.”

The first focus would be on improving knowledge of the space environment, he said.

“There’s a lot of progress that can be made on information sharing,” Nield said. “We want to be ready to have a value-added set of products and services as soon as we have a switch over from the Air Force.”

Nield cautioned against the temptation to hold up the transition until every question is answered and a perfect plan is in place.

“I think we have a remarkable consensus now on the direction to head. We just need to get started,” he said.

Schafer Corp.’s Don Greiman made the case for a large commercial role in space traffic management through a public-private partnership with the FAA. He said today’s catalogue of space objects maintained by the military does not predict the locations of objects precisely enough, partly because there are not enough telescopes and radars. As a result, the actual location of an object may be off. He said in one recent case, the observed location varied from the predicted location by more than 7 kilometers.

“We gotta do better than that, there’s no doubt about it,” he said, adding that commercially operated sensors should play a large role.

Today’s system is not very refined. Helms, a former commander of the 14th Air Force, which includes the Joint Space Operations Center, told a story of a close collision call between two satellites during her command. “The team was desperately looking for phone numbers” for the satellite operators, she said. She could not be sure there was not a collision until the objects were detected again as single objects.

“It’s a very difficult analytical project to [predict a collision] in an urgent sense,” she said. “We need to think of this as sort of a crowdsourcing problem.”

Space lawyer P.J. Blount of the University of Mississippi expressed concern about how the problem might be handled given the state of national politics in the U.S.

“We’re seeing a step away from multilateralism,” he said, a step away from “coordination” with other nations.

One panelist questioned whether enforcement would ultimately be necessary.

“How are we going to cooperate in space without that policing effort?” asked Mike Gazarik of Ball Aerospace.

That cooperation could prove difficult. Travis Blake of Lockheed Martin pointed to history, noting that as soon as nations began plying the seas and flying aircraft, they began contesting control of those domains.

“To understand that space would be different is to ignore what the history of those other domains has told us,” he said.

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Newman: Getting Humans to Mars Requires Global, Collaborative Effort

Speaker: Dava Newman, deputy administrator, NASA

by Lawrence Garrett, AIAA Web Editor

During the “Innovation to Enable NASA’s Journey to Mars” plenary, Newman said although NASA and the U.S. may lead the effort, private industry and international partner contributions are also vital.

Newman, NASA’s deputy administrator, explained that NASA’s plan has three phases. The first consists of using the International Space Station to test the technologies needed for sending a manned mission to Mars. The second phase is the proving ground in cislunar space, or the space between Earth and the moon. Newman said NASA will spend the 2020s investing in the necessary — but in many cases undeveloped — technologies needed to succeed in a human deep space mission to Mars.

She said phase two will consist of “learning how to live and work in deep space.”

The third phase involves sending humans to orbit Mars in the early 2030s. Newman explained that the eventual human Mars mission will last three and a half years — including 600 days spent on the surface of the planet — so NASA is working on developing the needed life systems to allow astronauts to survive long durations in deep space.

The goal, she said, is to reduce “human physiology risks.”

Newman provided a snapshot of some of the technologies that NASA is working to test or prove aboard the ISS, including advancements in refueling, habitation structures, next-generation solar arrays, in-space manufacturing, extravehicular activities systems, humanoid robotics and fire safety.

She said humans and robots are already working together at the ISS.

“Every day, every night, the robots are placing [items] and doing work,” she said, noting there is a “synergy between humans and robots” at the ISS.

Touching upon all the world’s efforts to date to send rovers to Mars, Newman mentioned the former Soviet Union, the U.S., Russia, Japan, the European Space Agency and India as all having attempted to send a rover to Mars.

“It’s really hard,” Newman said of the task.

Although the U.S. and NASA are leading the efforts now, Newman said NASA is working seamlessly with other agencies — such as NOAA and the U.S. Geological Survey — and with international partners and that the point really is global exploration.

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Córdova: Basic Research Is Key to Sustaining Innovation

Speaker: France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation

by Lawrence Garrett, AIAA Web Editor

To ensure the U.S. maintains its standing as the global leader in innovation and scientific advancement, basic research needs support, said France A. Córdova, director of the National Science Foundation, during the Durand Lecture for Public Service on Jan. 9 at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

In her lecture, “NSF’s 10 Big Ideas: Understanding Science, Discovering Breakthroughs and Influencing Public Policy,” Córdova explained why it’s vital the U.S. continue to fund the NSF and other supporters of basic research.

“Without sufficient investment in the scientific enterprise … new opportunities and frontiers just beyond our reach will remain just that — or else seized on by other emerging nations with the hunger to advance,” she said.

Córdova highlighted some of NSF’s contributions to aeronautics and astronautics throughout the years, including the foundation’s service as the lead agency for the International Geophysical Year, a scientific project in the late 1950s that led to a better understanding of weather, gravity and the upper atmosphere.

“All things important to aeronautics and astronautics today,” Córdova noted.

NSF has provided American and international astronomers access to several observatories, and more recently, she said, the foundation provided “crucial” early research funding for additive manufacturing.

“NSF funded the very first 3-D-printing grant to a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin,” Córdova said, adding that NSF also supported systems engineering for complex aircraft design.

Córdova also said that NSF’s recent investments in quantum technologies “hold the promise of future transformative discoveries for computation and communications.”

NSF investments in fundamental research have yielded incredible breakthroughs, she said.

“Those investments have brought us to the point where we can optimistically say that we’re on the verge of entering new frontiers of discovery today,” Córdova explained.

At the end of 2016, the NSF announced its 10 Big Ideas for Future NSF Investments. One of those ideas includes an initiative — in partnership with the Department of Defense, NASA and other agencies — to help harness artificial intelligence and create a future collaborative work environment between people and machines.

Córdova said the goal is for complementary rather than competitive relationships between humans and robots.

Another big idea is centered on tackling the big data revolution, which Córdova said is “already fast upon us.” She noted that the increased volume, variety and velocity of data offers unique paths to learning more about the world and that NSF’s vision for the future calls for “bold approaches to data science and cyber infrastructure.”

According to Córdova, the NSF is “poised to cross the threshold of our understanding of the universe that we inhabit at all levels: quantum, molecular, cellular and astronomical.”

She stressed that both high-risk research funded by the federal government and further research funded by private investment are vital.

“Never has there been a more important time for private and public entities to come together to understand each other’s roles and to leverage from each other the power of the partnership in bringing discovery to delivery in the marketplace,” Córdova said. “Through examples of powerful programs that make a difference and captivating narratives, we can broadly communicate the value of basic research and its benefit to societies.”

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Flying Safer, Flying Steadier — the Role of Active Flow Control Technology

Speaker: Israel J. Wygnanski, professor of aerospace engineering, University of Arizona

By Duane Hyland, AIAA Communications (2008-2017)

Active flow control technology holds much promise for helping aircraft designers design safer and more efficient aircraft, Israel J. Wygnanski said Jan. 10 during the Dryden Lectureship in Research at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Wygnanski’s lecture, “Maturation of Active Flow Control Concepts for Improved Aircraft Performance,” examined AFC technology, its uses and the results of recent experiments with the technology.

AFC technology smooths the flow of air over a plane’s surface, allowing for less separation of airflow and resulting in a less turbulent, safer and more efficient flight.

Wygnanski, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Arizona, argued that designers should use AFC technology in the design process. He walked attendees through various technical problems posed by separation of active flows of air over the wings of an aircraft. Examples include “stall, wing-tip stall and buffeting,” which he said threaten an aircraft’s performance.

Wygnanski shared the results of several experiments he conducted that incorporated AFC technology on aircraft. Among his findings was that by using flow actuators, or devices that extend into the flow, as small as one-eighth of an inch on the tail of a Boeing 757 aircraft, Wygnanski’s team saw upwards of “15 percent gains in rudder efficiency.” If the devices were part of the plane’s design, he said, it would mean greater fuel savings and a safer, less turbulent flight.

The team also discovered that these actuators “lead to greater stabilization of the aircraft by keeping the flows under control,” Wygnasnki said, adding that they “change the aircraft’s yawing motion, resulting in steadier yaw control” with less roll.

Wygnasnki concluded that based on what he has seen in tests, the industry should integrate AFC technology into aircraft design.

“We can no longer ignore AFC,” he said.

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Enhancing Aerospace Capabilities With Computing, Robots and Automation

Panelists: Moderator Samantha Marquart Brainard, doctoral candidate, George Washington University; Danette Allen, senior technologist for intelligent flight systems, NASA’s Langley Research Center; Neil Gershenfeld, director, The Center for Bits and Atoms, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Rob High, IBM Fellow and vice president and chief technology officer, IBM Watson; Robert Lutwak, program manager, Microsystems Technology Office, DARPA

by Hannah Godofsky, AIAA Communications

Machines are capable of doing more with less input from humans and will soon be able to assemble other structures or machines, inevitably opening up new possibilities for aerospace, a panel of experts said Jan. 12 at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Danette Allen, senior technologist for intelligent flight systems at NASA’s Langley Research Center, has worked at NASA for decades. In the “Disruptive Technology Developments — Breakthroughs That Will Transform Aerospace” panel, she said over the past 30 years, technology has changed in a myriad of ways. She mentioned autonomy as one of those changes and said it is altering not only the way humans and computers interact, but also aerospace.

“We’re at the dawn of what a lot of people call an autonomy revolution,” she said. “When we talk about these systems that learn, when we talk about these systems that adapt, we are changing the way we talk about the way humans interact with these machines.”

For example, humans can now delegate their responsibilities to computers or team up with them.

“A lot of this stuff is spinning in from our mobile devices, speech recognition … from gaming, we’ve got gesture recognition,” said Rob High, IBM Fellow and vice president and chief technology officer of IBM Watson. “It is our firm belief that cognitive computing will have its greatest value and most disruptive benefit when we use it to amplify human cognition.”

High said the ultimate goal is for cognitive computing to become capable of focusing on human experiences and expression to be able to understand intention and then to use that understanding to solve problems and consider alternative solutions.

“We simply cannot consume all of the information that is available to us,” he said. “We need something like a cognitive computing system that is able to facilitate and augment our own reasoning.”

Robert Lutwak, a program manager at DARPA, said advancements in computer hardware as a disruptive development could accelerate the advance of cognitive computing and autonomy.

“On-chip optical frequency control [is] the key disruptive device technology that’s coming along right now,” he said. “In the near future, within the next six months, we’re going to have prototype single-chip optical frequency digital synthesizers.”

In regards to the impact on aerospace, MIT’s Neil Gershenfeld said automation and robotics could lead to self-assembling structures. He added that future space explorers could utilize automation to build habitats.

“An ensemble of little robots can build scalable big structures,” he explained. “To make large-scale space structures, you can flat-pack them and have a little ensemble of assemblers with the flat-pack structure that then scales to a big thing.”

Gershenfeld also described a future aircraft assembly line in which the airframes are assembled from small pieces by robots.

“We’re working on this to make airframes without the supply chain,” he said.

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NASA’s Langley Research Center Directors Talk About Time at Center

Panelists: Moderator James R. Hansen, professor of history and director of The University Honors College, Auburn University; Dave Bowles, director, NASA’s Langley Research Center; Roy Bridges, former director, Langley; Jeremiah Creedon, former director, Langley; Delma Freeman, former director, Langley; Steve Jurczyk, former director, Langley; Lesa Roe, former director, Langley

by Hannah Godofsky, AIAA Communications

Past directors of NASA’s Langley Research Center reflected on their time at the center Jan. 9 during the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

AIAA commemorated 100 years of Langley with the “NASA Langley Centennial—A Storied Legacy, A Soaring Future” panel, which featured directors from 1996 to present day.

Jeremiah Creedon, Langley’s director from 1996 to 2002, spoke positively of the work he contributed.

“I can only wish for everyone in this audience, each and every one of you, that you could feel the same sense of pride that I felt working at NASA Langley,” he said.

Creedon also praised Langley for its meritocratic operating methods.

“I found it to be a very egalitarian organization,” he said. “It didn’t matter what you looked like or what you spoke like … it just mattered what you could do.”

Del Freeman, Langley’s director from 2002 to 2003, praised the work ethic of the center’s engineers and scientists.

“I was taught the job is never finished until you’ve got all the data, you’ve analyzed the data, and you’ve answered all the questions,” he said. “What has really made Langley over the years is the people. People given the opportunity and the challenges have produced some very significant things there.”

Others emphasized that aerospace can be an exciting career.

“What I’m going to tell you about my career all stemmed from just wanting to get off the dairy farm in northeast Georgia,” said Roy Bridges, Langley’s director from 2003 to 2005. “I was looking for a way that might have a little excitement in it.”

Lesa Roe, Langley’s director from 2005 to 2014, presided over an era of budget cuts and was put into the position of reorganizing a much leaner Langley.

“We’ve really reinvigorated the center with what we’ve done,” she said. “It’s smaller — it will be about 40 percent smaller than it was, but it will be much stronger than it was. And it’s all about the value that NASA Langley brings to the nation and its core competencies.”

Roe also praised the workforce at Langley.

“The thing that kept me there the whole nine years is just an incredible team of folks,” she said. “We just have a great team … Focusing on the challenges of flight is the core.”

Steve Jurczyk, Langley’s director from 2014 to 2015, has worked at NASA for 29 years. He said he appreciated the experience and echoed the praises of the workforce.

“Some of the things I value about Langley are really things I treasure about my own career,” he said. “I just really valued [the] hands-on experience. Also, the mentors I had on every project were just incredible. There is just such a culture of mentoring and paying it forward.”

Dave Bowles, Langley’s current director, has worked at the center for 37 years and summed it all up by saying, “One of the great things about Langley: You can do different things, and you’re really given opportunities to stretch.”

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Computer Prototyping Enhances Efficiency in Aircraft Design

Panelists: Moderator Paul Nielsen, director and CEO, Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Edward Kraft, technical adviser, Arnold Engineering Development Complex, Arnold Air Force Base; Robert Meakin, Air Vehicles project manager, Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments, High Performance Computing Modernization Program, Department of Defense; Scott Morton, Kestrel principal software developer, CREATE Air Vehicles, DOD HPCMP; Robert Narducci, technical fellow, Boeing; Douglass Post, chief scientist, DOD HPCMP; Brian Smith, Lockheed Martin Fellow, Program and Technology Integration, Advanced Development Programs, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

by Hannah Godofsky, AIAA Communications

The U.S. Department of Defense and private companies are using Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments, or CREATE, to fix problems with innovative system designs before building prototypes. Members of the “CREATE: Enabling Innovation Through Computational Prototypes and Supercomputers” panel discussed the program and virtual system prototyping Jan. 9 at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Bob Meakin, CREATE Air Vehicles project manager, said not only does virtual system prototyping allow engineers to verify their designs and fix flaws before key decision points and physical prototyping, but it also lets decision-makers assess planned operational use scenarios and system maintainability early in the acquisition process. Meakin said better planning as well as virtual wind tunnel rehearsals and flight tests lead to a more effective use of physical test budgets.

Scott Morton, Kestrel principal software developer with CREATE Air Vehicles, said the CREATE software is useful for virtual prototyping of everything from small drones to fighter jets. He showed examples of using CREATE to analyze propulsion integration, store separation, multibody static interference matrices and flight control system integration. Morton highlighted Kestrel’s potential for doing robust simulations of whole integrated systems.

The panelists from Lockheed Martin and Boeing both discussed the importance of accurate, reliable results from simulation tools.

“We have to be convinced that the tool works and the results are reliable,” said Brian Smith, a Lockheed Martin Fellow with Lockheed’s Skunk Works.

He emphasized that validation and model implementation are critical to enable use of CREATE tools for industrial applications. Industry and government need to be able to obtain consistent results or understand the difference between simulations with different tools and methods, Smith said, explaining that Lockheed Martin used both Kestrel and Lockheed’s in-house software tool, LM Aero Falcon, for F-35 Lightning II simulations.

Robert Narducci, a technical fellow at Boeing, echoed Smith’s comments.

“We’re on the hook for understanding what the tools are bringing and making sure the tools are accurate,” he said.

Narducci said Boeing uses CREATE Air Vehicles’ Helios for safety analysis but that Kestrel became attractive because it has capabilities outside the scope of Boeing’s existing toolbox.

Ed Kraft, a technical adviser at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex, said virtual prototyping has been beneficial in integrating disparate systems into a complete aircraft.

“We can design the perfect aerodynamic performance vehicle; we can design the perfect I-beam; we can design the perfect isolated engine — but it’s when you put them together that you have the discovery problems,” he said. “I look at all the major subsystems as an integrated system, and that’s a huge change.”

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NASA’s Far-Out Space Concepts

Panelists: Moderator Alvin Yew, program manager, NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts; Geoffrey Landis, scientist, NASA’s Glenn Research Center; Mason Peck, associate professor, Cornell University; Jonathan Sauder, technologist, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

by Ben Iannotta, Aerospace America Editor-in-Chief

Imagine a rover on the surface of Venus, propelled by the slow movement of the planet’s thick atmosphere; or a submarine exploring the depths of a hydrocarbon lake on Saturn’s moon Titan; or maybe a lander hopping from site to site on Neptune’s moon Triton; or how about a gram-sized spacecraft accelerating to 160 million kph and whizzing past an intriguing planet discovered in the solar system closest to ours.

NASA sets aside a small fraction of its $19 billion annual budget to fund studies of radical-sounding concepts like these, which panelists discussed Jan. 12 during the “NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts: Enabling Missions From Venus to Alpha Centauri” panel at the 2017 AIAA SciTech Forum in Grapevine, Texas.

Mason Peck, a Cornell University associate professor involved with the NIAC-supported interstellar Breakthrough Starshot Project, said NIAC is extremely valuable for those with big but high-risk visions.

“There’s at least some source that will think your idea appealing,” he said.

He and the Breakthrough team are trying to figure out how to squeeze a spacecraft’s critical elements, especially a communications package, onto what looks like a computer chip. They’ll then accelerate this toward Proxima b, a recently discovered planet more than 4 light years away, by focusing laser light onto a sail.

The big question: “Can you make something small enough that also survives? We’re talking about a 1 gram satellite,” Peck said.

Another question is whether engineers should attempt to include a camera to send back at least a rudimentary photo of the planet, probably via optical communications. The difficulty is that the spacecraft would streak by Proxima b with only a short opportunity for a single, true-color photograph, Peck said. That’s because the spacecraft would be closing so fast that the wavelengths from the planet would be shifted to the blue spectrum. As it speeds away, the wavelengths would be shifted to the red.

It might be better to send a spectrometer, he said.

Closer to home, there is the second planet from our sun. “Venus is a fascinating planet,” said Jonathan Sauder of the NASA-funded Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He wants to figure out how to navigate a rover across its surface despite pressures that would crush a nuclear submarine and temperatures that would melt lead.

At Venus’ average temperature of 462 degrees Celsius, even electronics built to U.S. military specifications could not survive, because they’re designed for a maximum of 125 C.

“The longest we’ve been able to have an object survive on Venus is two hours,” he said.

So, game over? Not quite. Sauder has been studying how to make a rover operate almost entirely mechanically. On the top of the rover would be a turbine through which Venus’ slow-moving, thick atmosphere would flow and propel the rover.

Venus is famous for its heat, but the solar system also has icy worlds, including Saturn’s giant moon Titan and Neptune’s moon Triton. Geoffrey Landis of NASA’s Glenn Research Center has been studying how those might be explored.

Titan has hydrocarbon lakes on its surface, and Landis wants to put a submarine into one of them. He said, “Titan is the only place in the solar system, other than Earth, that has liquid on the surface,” even if the liquid is methane and ethane. True, Jupiter’s moon Europa is intriguing because it is thought to have a saltwater ocean under its icy shell, but the ice might be many meters thick, he noted.

To get the submarine to the surface, Landis would borrow the entry vehicle design from the U.S. Air Force X-37B spacecraft. Radio waves traverse hydrocarbons very well, so unlike in Earth’s saltwater, the craft would not necessarily have to surface to communicate.

For exploring Triton, Landis wants to land a “hopper” spacecraft on the surface that would explore one area and then spring to another. It would be about as tall as a person and weigh 500 kilograms.

“It’s not bad,” he said. “It’s something we can send to Triton.”

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