Candidate regions on titan as promising landing sites for future in situ missions

Abstract

The highly successful and still on-going Cassini-Huygens mission to the Saturnian system points to the need for a return mission, with both remote and in situ instrumentation. The surface of Saturn’s moon Titan, hosts a complex environment in which many processes occur shaping its landscape. Several of its geological features resemble terrestrial ones, albeit constructed from different material and reflecting the interiorsurface-atmosphere exchanges. The resulting observed morphotectonic features and cryovolcanic candidate regions could benefit from further extensive exploration by a return mission that would focus on these aspects with adapted state-of-the-art instrumentation affording higher spectral and spatial resolution and in situ capabilities. We suggest that some features on Titan are more promising candidate locations for future landing and we present the case for Tui Regio, Hotei Regio and Sotra Patera as to why they could provide a wealth of new scientific results.