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This year's Mission: Prometheus, to Saturn's Moon, Titan was a great success. It proved through its experiments that there is a very great chance of life existing on the methanous moon.

-Titan was discovered in 1655 by Dutch astronomer, Christaan Huygens
-Titan is the largest of Saturn's 34 moons
-Titan is bigger than Mercury and Pluto

Titan is the only moon in the solar system to have an atmosphere. Its atmosphere is composed of 95% nitrogen and 5% methane, cyanide, and other hydrocarbons. This atmosphere is at least 10 times thicker than Earth's and about 10 times larger as well (Earth's atmosphere goes out 60km from the surface, whereas Titan's goes out 600km). The atmosphere is also extrememly hazy, and the haze, which is located around 200km from the surface, completely obscures the view of the surface from orbit. Indeed, a person standing on Titan's surface in the daytime would experience a level of daylight equivalent to one thousandth the daylight on Earth's surface. However, this is still 350 times brighter than an Earth night with a full moon.

Click here to see a comparison of Titan and Earth's atmospheres

Not much is known about the surface of Titan because the hazy atmosphere makes it extremely difficult to see. However, recent images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope reveal patches of variable brightness. These patches, scientists believe, indicate variable chemical compositions, and they hypothesise that this may indicate the presence of seas of liquid hydrocarbons.

Click here to see the dark plains of Titan
Click here to see the Icy Volcano of Titan
Click here to see the names given to various parts of Titan

Several spacecraft have already investigated Saturn, and Titan. These are:

-Pioneer XI (1979) (fly-by)
-Voyager I (1980) (fly-by)
-Voyager II (1981) (fly-by)
-Cassini-Huygens (2004)

-The Cassini Orbiter is still orbiting Saturn
-The Huygens probe dived into Titan’s atmosphere in Jan. 2005

The first three probes were unsuccessful in penetrating the hazy atmosphere of Titan. However, with the Huygens probe being designed exactly for that purpose, many new interesting details about the veiled moon are being revealed.

Astronauts 

Stephen Smith (Habitat Commander): Stephen is very pleased to be Habitat commander for this year’s mission to Titan. Stephen has been involved in the OCE Space Simulation since Grade nine, but this is his first time as an astronaut on the main mission, although he was an astronaut in mission Gamma during the 2003-2004 school year. Stephen was EEP commander for 2003-04 and the 2004-05 school year and can’t imagine how he lived before Space Sim. When not working hard for Space Sim (which is most of the time), Stephen is either working with the Lisgar trivia team, programming the electronic sign for LSC, at the debating club, working on the elections committee, or working to stay on the honour role for the fourth year in a row. Stephen is also involved in the arts and has been in the Wind ensemble as well as multiple rolls in the musical Guys and Dolls. Stephen hopes that he will live up to the task assigned to him as leader of the astronauts, and that this mission will be one to remember.

Jonathan Scothorn (Pilot): This is Jonathan’s first year as a pilot, but he certainly knows how to fly. Jonathan was part of the 2005 mission to Mars, and has been involved in Space Sim in various ways throughout the years, most recently being involved in the creation of bunk beds for the astronauts. Space Sim is not the only extra-curricular involvement Jonathan is part of. He is also a member of various premier Lisgar musical ensembles, and has taken the AP French Language Exam. Jonathan does this at the same time as he keeps a high academic standing in school. He is in the eleventh grade at Lisgar Collegiate Institute. 

Steven Mair (Co-Pilot): Steven Mair was born on March 15, 1988. He grew up in Costa Rica where he gained an interest in space and space sciences after walking on a beach with absolutely no artificial light. Steve, although not strong in any one area of expertise, is a well-rounded guy who likes to think himself as being in the right mood at the right time and a natural leader. Although perpetually unlucky, Steve has always been an optimist and prefers it when life gets interesting. This was Steve's first main mission as an astronaut, but he was no stranger to missions having worked as mission control during the 2005 mission to Mars. Steven spends his times reading, drawing, biking around,
and generally trying to be an all round helpful guy.

Stefan De Young (Engineer – Tech Specialist): Stefan De Young was born in 1989 in Ottawa. He has lived in Sandy Hill all his life, and, being that Sandy Hill’s High School of choice is Lisgar, Stefan proudly began to attend that illustrious institution in fall, 2003. He is currently in Gr. 11 and is enjoying, out of his full course load, physics the most. Stefan entered Spacesim last year and has quickly risen through the chain of command to occupy most of the Tertiary Command Plateau (Directors) by himself. Stefan is the Public Relations Director, Office Director, Webmaster, and Wikimaster of Spacesim. During The Mission Stefan was to have been the Robotics Specialist, but the Robotics project wasn’t ready in time for launch and was scrapped. Stefan then took on the role of Chief Engineer and Tech Specialist. For the mission, he was assigned the rank of Lieutenant. Stefan hopes to return to Spacesim next year, and aspires to reach the Primary Command Plateau and the rank of Commander.

Brain Foo (Payload Specialist): The sciences have always been one of Brian’s passions, be it understanding the replication of proteins and how they work, or the behaviour of subatomic particles, Brian will want to know what makes it tick. This love of science shows in his excellent performance in science courses, and his acceptance into the Shad Valley summer program. Brian has many other interests besides sciences, and has amazed himself by finding time to keep them up. Aside from being a full time student, maintaining an above 90% average, he has duties as a co-president of the Lisgar Society of Debating, and as the EEP (Elementary Education Program) Commander of Space Sim. During his spare time, he enjoys fencing, biking, building plastic models, and programming.   

Nevin Hotson (Able Crewman): Nevin Hotson is a Grade 10 student at Lisgar, in his first year at SpaceSim. Born and raised in Almonte, but schooled in Ottawa, he is avidly interested in Mathematics, Science and Latin, even though the latter is not related to his chosen career path of Aerospace Engineer. Also a key member of the Lisgar Trivia Team and the Lisgar Society of Debating, he occupies his spare time running, playing the clarinet, surfing the 'Net, meticulously correcting grammar on the Wiki and forums, and conquering the world.

The Results of the Experiments that were conducted during the mission can be downloaded here.