NASA's Dragonfly Mission

[Yazata]

If you miss the Mars Helicopter, don't despair!

NASA is planning to send a much larger and more elaborate helicopter to Saturn's big moon Titan! Titan is the only body in the Solar System besides Earth with seas and rivers. (The fluid there is liquid methane, not water.) Its atmosphere is four times as dense as Earth's, so helicopters will be practical there. Dragonfly will be able to fly around, survey the landscape from the air, then land at interesting sites to do chemical analyses on samples to assess whether any prebiotic chemistry has been happening.

They propose to launch it in July 2028 atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy.

https://x.com/xdNiBoR/status/1861166285305926137

https://www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-a...y-mission/

NASA says:

"Dragonfly centers on novel approach to planetary exploration, employing a rotorcraft-lander to travel between and sample diverse sites on Saturn’s largest moon. With contributions from partners around the globe, Dragonfly’s scientific payload will characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry on Titan, where carbon-rich material and liquid water may have mixed for an extended period, and search for chemical indications of whether water-based or hydrocarbon-based life once existed on Saturn’s moon."

[Image: GdQrTQoWEAAXLAI?format=jpg&name=small]

nsNS