Engineers design a spacecraft to explore Titan

Engineers from the Moscow Aviation Institute have created a special vehicle to explore Saturn’s moon Titan, which moves in a special way using two parallel spirals.Eleanora Voitsitskaya, chief designer, points out that the vehicle is similar to a tank, but instead of a track, it is moved by two screws, which allows it to move easily in water, land and swamps. This is absolutely necessary in the exploration of Titan, where there are basins of hydrocarbons and iron soils similar to snow and ice elsewhere.

She says, “It is planned to provide the vehicle with two parallel screws and a thick shaft, whereby when it rotates in the same direction, the vehicle will move forward with some deviation to the side, meaning there will be no slipping.”It should be noted, that the journey to the moon Titan takes about 10 years. Therefore, in order to maintain the devices installed in the vehicle, the so-called gravity assist must be used, by which the vehicle obtains acceleration under the influence of the gravitational force of the planets and moons, which allows saving fuel and thus increasing the useful payload.

The mission of this spacecraft will be to conduct a detailed study of the composition of Titan’s soil and atmosphere, take pictures of various locations, and take samples of its soil and rocks. And all this information will be sent by the craft to an orbiting satellite, which in turn will send it back to Earth, meaning no need to think about how to return the craft to Earth.