NASA wants to explore Saturn’s moon Titan with a drone

The ‘Dragonfly’ mission to Saturn’s largest moon, which has already been postponed several times, is expected to launch in July 2028. The car-sized drone, which is being built by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, is expected to reach the moon Titan in 2034. This will be the first time a scientific vehicle “will be allowed to fly on another planetary body (i.e. the moon; take note),” according to NASA’s website.

For the next two and a half years, the nuclear-powered plane, which has eight rotors, will take off on a reconnaissance flight every Titan Day (16 days for us Earthlings) and look for prebiotic chemical processes taking place on both Titan and Titan is located on dozens of pre-selected locations on early Earth before the emergence of life.

Inhospitable minus 180 degrees on the surface
However, the Titan is not so life-friendly. The moon consists largely of ice and, due to its great distance from the sun – it is ten times further away than our Earth – has average temperatures of about 180 degrees below freezing. Due to its nitrogen-rich and dense atmosphere and the presence of liquid, Titan is considered one of the most Earth-like bodies in the solar system.

Lakes of methane discovered on Titan
NASA, together with its European counterpart ESA, has gathered important prior knowledge for the planned ‘Dragonfly’ mission through the ‘Cassini-Huygens’ space mission launched in 1997. Two linked probes – ‘Cassini’ and ‘Huygens’ – were sent to Saturn. The former examined Saturn from orbit, the latter landed on Titan, where, among other things, she discovered methane lakes in which a variety of organic compounds are suspected.