Today, NASA announced the next mission in their New Frontiers program to explore the solar system. Dragonfly, a drone lander, will explore Saturn’s largest moon Titan.
Titan is the only solar system moon with an extensive atmosphere and standing bodies of liquid on its surface. The moon is also filled with organic materials, and is thought to be similar to what early Earth might have looked like, before life formed, but with many of the same ingredients. Despite being a distant moon, it often ranks as one of the most Earth-like worlds in the solar system.
Dragonfly, which will launch in 2026 and land on Titan in 2034, is being managed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. It will be able to make multiple autonomous flights, up to a few dozen, powered by its rotors across Titan’s surface. In total, it will spend about two and a half years exploring ...
