Page:Advanced Automation for Space Missions.djvu/48

 is crucial in understanding surface conditions and evaluating the possibility of life. Thus, smart multispectral correlation systems development is essential.

(4) The shrouded surface provides an unknown environment in which to test imaging systems without bias.

1980	1985	1990	1995	2000 i	r	?r	1	1

l	1	1	l	j 1980	1985	1990	1995	2000 TIME Figure 3.2. - Prior mission contributions to desired Titan mission capabilities.

(5) Titan is better capable of capturing and holding the public interest than other bodies for some of the same reasons that it has received increasing scientific attention; for instance, the fact that it holds a faint hope for lifeforms (past, present, or future) and requires the full NASA array of equipment including the manned Shuttle. The Saturnian moon already has been popularized by Carl Sagan in his PBS television series "Cosmos" with a visually striking simulated Saturn ring penetration and Titan landing, and Voyager I vastly increased our scientific knowledge of Titan during its encounter with the planet in November 1980.

(6) Precursor missions will provide enough knowledge of Titan and the Saturn environment to allow verification by Earth-based scientists of the atmospheric and surface models sent back by hypothesis-formation modules operating aboard the Titan spacecraft.

(7) A partial knowledge of the Titan environment permits equipment and experiment economies over later missions wherein many more contingencies and hypotheses must be anticipated.

A Titan Demonstration Mission in the year 2000 AD would benefit from two types of heritage (fig. 3.2). The first, knowledge heritage, allows the use of spacecraft com-