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Space Blimps

Posted by michael on from the proudly-sponsored-by-Budweiser dept.

EccentricAnomaly writes: "JPL has a press release about an aerorover blimp for exploring Saturn's moon Titan. There's also a group that has been working on inflatable rovers for Mars and Titan. And there's a group working on flying robots, or aerobots for space exploration. With a 2.5 to 3 hour round-trip light time between Earth and Saturn, flying anything on Titan has got to be a little dicey."

6 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Serious LAG by Sabalon · · Score: 4

    With a 2.5 to 3 hour round-trip light time between Earth and Saturn, flying anything on Titan has got to be a little dicey."

    And I thought lag on my cable modem was bad.

    I would assume some system would be incorporated to have it auto-navigate.
    if(mountain) turn left;

  2. What we need is by Scutter · · Score: 4

    What we need is a good inflatable technology scientist. Paging Dr. Schlock...

    --

    "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  3. What's sad.... by Anthony+Boyd · · Score: 5

    ...is that, depite going to these pages and seeing the technology, I really feel in my gut that much of this is decades away. These agencies (NASA, JPL) seem so slow-moving. It seems crazy, but more and more I find I am pinning my dreams of space onto civilians like "Rocketguy" and Dennis Tito. It is frustrating to look at the new technologies and be so jaded about them, but what normal people are doing to get into space soon excites me in ways that NASA can't match.

    --
    My Greasemonkey scripts for Digg &
  4. This is just a NASA smokescreen by typical+geek · · Score: 5

    covering up their real interest in inflatables in space.

    I can't say much more (NDA, you know), but think about normal, red blooded American men in space for 3 1/2 years on the round trip to Mars, and the cost to get one of these into orbit (at $10,000 a pound) for each astronaut.

    Yes, inflatables are the answer.

  5. Oh no... by g0thm0g · · Score: 4

    Sir, we calculated the pressure in stones per square inch, not pounds! There goes another $4 million.

    --
    Elbereth Gilthoniel!
  6. Re:Not really important by Zac+Thompson · · Score: 4
    Actually, Titan is one of the few places in the solar system that is a really good candidate for supporting life natively. It has a nitrogen and hydrocarbon atmosphere, with plenty of the required building blocks for amino acids. It's bigger than Mercury or Pluto; the atmosphere is only about 60% higher pressure than Earth's ... I think there's a Clarke novel about Titan. Anyone? http://www.to-scorpio.com/titanfacts.htm

    Unfortunately, it's damn cold, but a human presence should start creating some global lunar warming right away ;)