From: henry@spsystems.net   
      
   In article <1106409880.714252.109460@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com>,   
   Explorer  wrote:   
   >Would it be feasible to use aerobraking at Titan to facilitate a Titan   
   >orbiter?   
      
   Yes and no and maybe.  Once you've entered some sort of Titan orbit,   
   aerobraking can certainly be used to lower it.  Getting *into* such an   
   orbit is a harder problem.  A Saturn orbiter doesn't encounter Titan often   
   enough for slow aerobraking (like that used at Mars) to work well.  And   
   doing aerocapture -- shedding a *lot* of velocity with a single pass,   
   using a heatshield and active control -- is rather iffy, especially in a   
   poorly-known atmosphere:  navigation has to be very precise.  Nobody's   
   used aerocapture even for Mars, yet.   
      
   >What about deployment of a long lived balloon within Titan's   
   >atmosphere, can some sort of balloon survive and operate in the cold?   
      
   Like a surface probe, it would *probably* need an RTG for power if you   
   want it to be long-lived.  Given that, the idea is not ridiculous.  The   
   only major question is whether the atmosphere is windy enough to make   
   ballooning operations risky.  It would be better to know a bit more about   
   Titan first.   
   --   
   "Think outside the box -- the box isn't our friend."    |   Henry Spencer   
                                   -- George Herbert       | henry@spsystems.net   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)