In the plans drafted by geologist Ellen Stofan, with funding from NASA, a capsule would splash down in one of these northern lakes — probably Ligeia Mare or Kraken Mare — with a "Lake Lander," known as the Titan Mare Explorer (or TiME for short.) Because solar power is in short supply in Titan's atmosphere, which is full of methane rain and far from the Sun, TiME would use a new kind of nuclear power cell known as the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). The lander wouldn't need sails to zoom along, pushed by Titan's nitrogen winds, but it would have a crow's nest supporting a camera, to gain a better vantage point.

Titan's average temperatures of -292 Fahrenheit are enough to keep those methane/ethane/propane seas liquid. Stofan told Space.Com:

It's very cold, but the technological challenges aren't as big as you might think. Landing in liquid is a lot more forgiving than on land.

Now that Stofan has funding to draw up her plans, she is crafting a proposal for NASA to fund the mission under its Discovery program — and if that gets approved, our nuclear windjammer could explore Titan's seas as soon as 2022. Strohan's report (PDF) is here. [Space.com and The Register]

The two solar missions were discussed at a conference of solar physicists in Bournemouth this past weekend. One mission, spearheaded by the European Space Agency, will launch in 2017. Protected by a 15-inch heat shield, the solar orbiter will take pictures of the sun's poles and its surface, orbiting at a distance of 20 million miles - a third closer than Mercury. Its orbit will take it past the sun's poles. Here are some cool pics of the solar orbiter:

And then meanwhile NASA is launching a probe with the sexy, sexy name of Solar Probe Plus. Forget orbiting the sun - this baby will fly into the sun's upper atmosphere, known as the corona, and fly just 4.3 million miles above the surface. That's getting up close and personal! [Daily Telegraph]

NASA announced that Space Shuttle Endeavour was being moved to the launch pad in preperation for the Hubble repair mission. However, Space Shuttle Atlantis is the primary shuttle for this mission. According to NASA:

Endeavour will be at Launch Pad 39B in the unlikely event a rescue mission is needed during Atlantis' May flight to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. After Atlantis is cleared to land, Endeavour will move to Launch Pad 39A in late May for its upcoming STS-127 mission to the International Space Station.

Why the need for a backup shuttle? The threat of a dangerous collision with space junk has increased drastically in the area where Atlantis will be operating. And at this point, the International Space Station will be unable to help in case of a problem.

Picture from marshall43402

Scientists theorize that the "G" ring formed from icy debris that scattered when meteorites crashed into the newly discovered moon. Said Cornell University astronomer Matthew Hedman:

Before Cassini, the G ring was the only dusty ring that was not clearly associated with a known moon, which made it odd. The discovery of this moonlet, together with other Cassini data, should help us make sense of this previously mysterious ring.

Meanwhile, NASA was seeking your votes on where to point the Hubble Space Telescope next, and nearly half of the 140,000 voters chose an interacting pair of spiral galaxies, Arp 274, which appear to be shaking hands. The full-color image of this galactic get-together will come out during the 100 Hours of Astronomy event, April 2-5.

The telescopes in this gallery include Jantar Mantar, a famous observatory built in 1724 in India. But there's also the European Southern Observatory's mega-telescope in Chile (pictured above), and a huge South African observatory. Possibly the most glamorous, though, is the Griffith Observatory, which is always getting gussied up for some formal event and has a whole sassy museum thing going on.