TandEM: Titan and Enceladus mission

Abstract

International audienceTandEM was proposed as an L-class (large) mission in response to ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 Call, and accepted for further studies, with the goal of exploring Titan and Enceladus. The mission concept is to perform in situ investigations of two worlds tied together by location and properties, whose remarkable natures have been partly revealed by the ongoing Cassini-Huygens mission. These bodies still hold mysteries requiring a complete exploration using a variety of vehicles and instruments. TandEM is an ambitious mission because its targets are two of the most exciting and challenging bodies in the Solar System. It is designed to build on but exceed the scientific and technological accomplishments of the Cassini-Huygens mission, exploring Titan and Enceladus in ways that are not currently possible (full close-up and in situ coverage over long periods of time). In the current mission architecture, TandEM proposes to deliver two medium-sized spacecraft to the Saturnian system. One spacecraft would be an orbiter with a large host of instruments which would perform several Enceladus flybys and deliver penetrators to its surface before going into a dedicated orbit around Titan alone, while the other spacecraft would carry the Titan in situ investigation components, i.e. a hot-air balloon (Montgolfière) and possibly several landing probes to be delivered through the atmospher

Sounding of Titan’s atmosphere at submillimeter wavelengths from an orbiting spacecraft

“…of TSSM. Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM) was essentially the ''merger'' of the TandEM mission (Coustenis et al, 2009) proposed in response to ESA's Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 call, with the Titan Explorer study commissioned by NASA as an Outer Planet Flagship Mission (OPFM) for launch in 2020. In a nutshell, the TSSM mission architecture relied on the combination of an orbiter and two in situ elements (a Titan montgolfi ere and a Titan Lander).…”

“…Yet, this part of the atmosphere must play an important role in coupling stratospheric and thermospheric chemistry and dynamics (Müller-Wodarg et al, 2008). Sounding of this region, sometimes and justifiably termed ''agnostosphere'', is likely to be one of the priorities of a future Titan Orbiter (Coustenis et al, 2009).…”

First observation of CO at 345GHz in the atmosphere of Saturn with the JCMT: New constraints on its origin

“…The internal source could be constrained from new observations at submillimeter wavelengths when heterodyne broad-band spectrometers will become available. Besides, sending a probe in the atmosphere of Saturn to measure the deep water abundance as part of or in the end of the Titan Saturn System Mission (Coustenis et al, 2008) should be considered. It would provide a strong constraint to the processes that led to the formation of the planet.…”

Mapping Magnetospheric Equatorial Regions at Saturn from Cassini Prime Mission Observations

“…Each item identified and listed in the map is described in detail in section seven. The global view of the magnetosphere is brought together in section eight with a discussion of open questions, particularly compared to those posed by Blanc et al (2002) and which may provide input for future mission designs, such as the proposed ESA Cosmic Visions candidate "TandEM" (Coustenis et al 2008). The paper closes with a conclusion in section nine.…”