Having a bit of a laugh Bank Holiday Monday. Here's another gem from the Moonbase Dreamshop of Custom SWORD: the TITAN LANDER. Bringing SWORD bang up to date and beyond, this toy is a replica of the proposed 21st Century NASA landing craft which will descend and float on the methane seas of Saturn's liquid moon, TITAN. The box would be bristling with touch-screen 'star features': mp3 of titanic winds, on-box video of flight and methane voyage, Wii/Video game links and actual real-time webcam link to NASA lander. The toy will feature mystery floating action, working floodlight, mini-lab and revolving web-scope. Inside the box will be a TITANAUT badge. Date of manufacture 2067 (model number TV21).
References: NASA, ESA, Kidsastronomy
Wow! Love it, Woodsy! ^_^
ReplyDeleteCan a lander like this float on methane? Is there a chance of the liquid catching fire?
ReplyDelete'Here's a "thought experiment" for more advanced students to try. NASA's Cassini spacecraft sent the European Space Agency's Huygens probe to the surface of Saturn's moon, Titan, where it found evidence that the surface contains large bodies of liquid methane (Phillips, 2005). On Earth, methane (CH4) is typically not liquid at all, and is known most commonly as 'natural gas.' On Titan, where the surface temperature is −179°C, water would be solid and methane is a flowing liquid. What is the density of liquid methane? How does the density of liquid methane compare to the density of water? If your boat could float 100 pennies in water, how many pennies would it support (on Earth) in a container filled with liquid methane? An actual experiment you could do would be to re-do the experiment with a liquid that has a density different than that of water. Cooking oil would be a good choice. Though the difference in density is not nearly as dramatic as for liquid methane, it's a lot easier to obtain and safer to work with! How does the buoyancy of each boat hull in vegetable oil (measured by the number of pennies it can support) compare to its buoyancy in water?
ReplyDeleteFor more science project ideas in this area of science, see Aerodynamics & Hydrodynamics Project Ideas'
Will there even be a need for toys in the future? Won't games and holograms have taken over?
ReplyDeleteScary thought, Chronicles. And fascinating question you have there, Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteAs for your point, Woodsy, that's quite a worrisome questions too. However, i take comfort in the fact that despite the relative cheapness of electronic media, and the proliferation of computer games and virtual environments, shops still abound with board games, dolls, action figures, toy cars ... etc.
I read an article in the paper that video games/ facebook etc have reduced empathy amongst young people. Might it not be other factors like capitalism and drink?
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