New Titan Lander Design

[duncan1297]

I thought this was pretty interesting.

[Ravenchant]

It seems like an amazing concept, but I'd be wary until they show a bit more. How is the thing powered? RTGs are heavy, and 75kg doesn't exactly leave a lot of wiggle room...

[jfull]

This is... so much unlike anything tried before, I'm not sure what to think.

My main thought is that it doesn't seem to have any place for an RTG or instruments to be mounted

[mdatspace]

This can't be called unconventional as a lander. This concept is absurd and and it works!

[Drunken Hobo]

What's teminal velocity on Titan? Only 0.14g gravity and (with a vague ideal gas calculation) around 4-5 times the atmospheric density of Earth at sea-level.

If it's slow enough they could realistically do away with a parachute altogether and just have a heat shield.

[Skyler4856]

Why not an ornithopter/boat?

[DarkStar64]

Why not an ornithopter/boat?

Because its liquid methane...

[Tommygun]

It's just too weird.

I'm a bit worried about all those cables getting snagged on a rock.

I'll try and keep an open mind, but it's so weird. Like War of the Worlds weird, it just needs a three eyed death ray.

....did I mention it's weird looking?

[Galane]

Five minutes and fifty-five seconds without mentioning that Buckminster Fuller coined the word tensegrity and built some pretty neat things from rigid rods and tensioned cables.

[tavert]

It seems like an amazing concept, but I'd be wary until they show a bit more. How is the thing powered? RTGs are heavy, and 75kg doesn't exactly leave a lot of wiggle room...

This may fall under the category of concepts that are hurt by the cancellation of the ASRG, as that would've only been 20 kg as opposed to the 45 kg of the Curiosity-type MMRTG.