Science goals and new mission concepts for future exploration of Titan's atmosphere geology and habitability: Titan POlar Scout/orbitEr and In situ lake lander and DrONe explorer (POSEIDON)
Creators: name: Rodriguez, Sébastien
name: Vinatier, Sandrine
name: Cordier, Daniel
name: Tobie, Gabriel
name: Achterberg, Richard K.
name: Anderson, Carrie M.
name: Badman, Sarah V.
name: Barnes, Jason W.
name: Barth, Erika L.
name: Bézard, Bruno
name: Carrasco, Nathalie
name: Charnay, Benjamin
name: Clark, Roger N.
name: Coll, Patrice
name: Cornet, Thomas
name: Coustenis, Athena
name: Couturier-Tamburelli, Isabelle
name: Dobrijevic, Michel
name: Flasar, F. Michael
name: de Kok, Remco
name: Freissinet, Caroline
name: Galand, Marina
name: Gautier, Thomas
name: Geppert, Wolf D.
name: Griffith, Caitlin A.
name: Gudipati, Murthy S.
name: Hadid, Lina Z.
name: Hayes, Alexander G.
name: Hendrix, Amanda R.
name: Jauman, Ralf
name: Jennings, Donald E.
name: Jolly, Antoine
name: Kalousova, Klara
name: Koskinen, Tommi T.
name: Lavvas, Panayotis
name: Lebonnois, Sébastien
name: Lebreton, Jean-Pierre
name: Gall, Alice Le
name: Lellouch, Emmanuel
name: Mouélic, Stéphane Le
name: Lopes, Rosaly M. C.
name: Lora, Juan M.
name: Lorenz, Ralph D.
name: Lucas, Antoine
name: MacKenzie, Shannon
name: Malaska, Michael J.
name: Mandt, Kathleen
name: Mastrogiuseppe, Marco
name: Newman, Claire E.
name: Nixon, Conor A.
name: Radebaugh, Jani
name: Rafkin, Scot C.
name: Rannou, Pascal
name: Sciamma-O-Brien, Ella M.
name: Soderblom, Jason M.
name: Solomonidou, Anezina
name: Sotin, Christophe
name: Stephan, Katrin
name: Strobel, Darrell
name: Szopa, Cyril
name: Teanby, Nicholas A.
name: Turtle, Elizabeth P.
name: Vuitton, Véronique
name: West, Robert A.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2021
Subjects: subject: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP)
subject: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: In response to ESA Voyage 2050 announcement of opportunity, we propose an ambitious L-class mission to explore one of the most exciting bodies in the Solar System, Saturn largest moon Titan. Titan, a "world with two oceans", is an organic-rich body with interior-surface-atmosphere interactions that are comparable in complexity to the Earth. Titan is also one of the few places in the Solar System with habitability potential. Titan remarkable nature was only partly revealed by the Cassini-Huygens mission and still holds mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. The proposed mission concept POSEIDON (Titan POlar Scout/orbitEr and In situ lake lander DrONe explorer) would perform joint orbital and in situ investigations of Titan. It is designed to build on and exceed the scope and scientific/technological accomplishments of Cassini-Huygens, exploring Titan in ways that were not previously possible, in particular through full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time. In the proposed mission architecture, POSEIDON consists of two major elements: a spacecraft with a large set of instruments that would orbit Titan, preferably in a low-eccentricity polar orbit, and a suite of in situ investigation components, i.e. a lake lander, a "heavy" drone (possibly amphibious) and/or a fleet of mini-drones, dedicated to the exploration of the polar regions. The ideal arrival time at Titan would be slightly before the next northern Spring equinox (2039), as equinoxes are the most active periods to monitor still largely unknown atmospheric and surface seasonal changes. The exploration of Titan northern latitudes with an orbiter and in situ element(s) would be highly complementary with the upcoming NASA New Frontiers Dragonfly mission that will provide in situ exploration of Titan equatorial regions in the mid-2030s.
description: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1908.01374