Tuna Tepe - 2005 - Eyüboğlu

Uranus and Spacecraft to its Moon Titania

It is really hard to imagine that a planet has three moons. In my imagination, just like the
moon of Earth, a planet can only have one moon. In this respect it was very interesting for
me to study the three moons of Uranus named Ariel, Oberon and Titania. In fact following
the discoveries of Voyager 2 we know that Uranus has 27 fascinating moons.

I think that among the major three, Oberon and Titania are more interesting than Ariel
because we know that Oberron is cratered roughly composed of half ice and half rock and
Titania has valleys, valley walls, reflective material which may represent frost. Both ice and
frost suggest life beneath.

It is interesting that Titania had been detected telescopically six years earlier than Uranus
in 1787 by the English astronomer William Herschel. It has been named after characters in
Shakespeare's Midsummer-Night's Dream. Most of what we know about Titania was again
learned from the mission of Voyager 2 when it flew past the moon in 1986. I think that it’s
discovery is earlier than Uranus due to the reflective material which makes it more shiny.
Titania is the largest of Uranus' moons and the eighth largest moon in the Solar System. I
think Titania is the most interesting, not because it is the biggest but it has valleys and
reflective material. If I could send a spacecraft to explore Titania, I would equip my
spacecraft with a drilling capacity to see the details of what is deep in it. Maybe there is life
deep somewhere or there have been civilizations which disappeared. I would make sure that
my spacecraft brought pieces of materials back to earth so that further analysis could be made
about its composition as well as about traces of life.

References:

- P. Ingersoll, Andrew. “Titania.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica,

Inc., www.britannica.com/place/Titania-astronomy.
- Williams, Matt. “Uranus' Moon Titania.” Universe Today, 19 Nov. 2017,
www.universetoday.com/56048/titania/.
- Titania, Moon of Uranus - The Solar System on Sea and Sky,
www.seasky.org/solar-system/uranus-titania.html.