Universe Today
Discovery and Naming:
Size. Mass and Orbit:
Composition and Surface Features:
Methane Lakes:
Atmosphere:
Habitability:
Exploration:
The first probe to visit the Saturnian system was Pioneer 11 in 1979, which took images of Titan and Saturn together and revealed that Titan was probably too cold to support life. Titan was examined in 1980 and 1981 by both the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes, respectively. While Voyager 2 managed to take snapshots of Titan on its way to Uranus and Neptune, only Voyager 1 managed to conduct a flyby and take pictures and readings.
The Huygens probe landed on Titan on January 14th, 2005, making Titan the most distant body from Earth to have a space probe land on its surface. During the course of its investigations, it would discover that many of the surface features appear to have been formed by fluids at some point in the past.
In 2015, NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) awarded a Phase II grant to a proposed robotic submarine in order to further investigate and develop the concept. This submarine explorer, should it be deployed to Titan, will explore the depths of Kraken Mare to investigate its makeup and potential for supporting life.