WSU team helps NASA test space submarine for Titan's seas

Images captured by the Cassini spacecraft showing hydrocarbon lakes at Titan's northern polar region (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute)

The US space agency is planning a mission to Titan within the next 20 years and needs an autonomous submarine to navigate the moon’s hydrocarbon lakes and seas. Comprised mostly of ethane and methane, these are the only known examples of stable liquid seas found anywhere in the solar system apart from Earth. However, the temperature in these hydrocarbon lakes can be in the region of -185°C, making them unlike any environment found naturally on our own planet.

To investigate how a submarine might operate in these extreme conditions, the WSU team recreated Titan’s atmosphere in its cryogenic lab, building a high-pressure test chamber housing an ethane and methane liquid mix at very cold temperatures. It then added a two-inch, cylinder-shaped cartridge heater to simulate the heat that the space submarine would create. According to the researchers, one of the biggest challenges was understanding how nitrogen bubbles caused by the submarine’s heat could affect its ability to manoeuvre, manage ballast systems and collect data.