Titan entry capsule (V3)
Titan orbit to atmosphere; releases the rotorcraft or lands
Titan orbit to atmosphere; releases the rotorcraft or lands. An aeroshell and a parachute. Titan's thick air and low gravity make entry gentle: the capsule glows during the plunge, then drifts down under a parachute almost 20 m wide.
Propulsion: Aeroshell and parachutes. Envelope: 6 m long by 8 m maximum diameter design
All input and derived values below are read from assets/data/vehicles.json, generated by scripts/analysis/vehicle_budget.py. Values marked “verify” are not established facts.
Open the 3D model See it in the tour How the propulsion works
Inputs
| Input | Value | Basis and notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mass, kg | 12,000 | design |
| Surface air density, kg/m³ | 5.4 | physics Fulchignoni et al. 2005, Nature 438, 785 (HASI surface pressure and temperature) |
| Surface gravity, m/s² | 1.352 | physics https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/saturniansatfact.html |
| Touchdown speed, m/s | 5 | design |
| Parachute cd | 0.8 | physics |
Derived performance
| Quantity | Value |
|---|---|
| Main parachute area, m² | 300 |
| Main parachute diameter, m | 19.6 |