But Titan is way out in the dark, so this boat would need a little nuclear generator if it were sent out using today’s technology.

But this mission probably won’t be sent out until way after 2025. By then quantum computers will be old hat (see the article elsewhere on this newsletter):

“Should we ever build quantum computers — which would be smaller and exponentially more powerful than modern computers…”

With so much more computing power, you could build a robot sailboat that could raise and lower its own sails and handle itself as if it had a crew of little sailors. Titan is known to have an atmosphere, and as it circles Saturn it will have a night and day, so it should have convective winds.

There is an entry at Wikipedia entitled, “Atmosphere of Titan,” which says that Titan is a “Super-rotator,” meaning that the atmosphere moves around faster than the surface. It also says that a the atmosphere is so thick that in the light gravity of this moon a human could fly by flapping large wings. Does this remind you of the orinthopters of “Dune?”

This means that an extended flight deck could stick out of the poop deck allowing little electric helicopters to lift off and take measurements.

The sea of Titan is much less dense than water, so the sailboat would need to be very light. By 2025 we just might be able to weave its hull and decks from carbon nanotubes (much stronger and lighter than steel). It could as buoyant as a Styrofoam boogie board.