spacetoday.net: NASA selects Titan mission

NASA selects Titan mission

Posted: Sun, Jun 30, 2019, 10:33 AM ET (1433 GMT)
Dragonfly Titan spacecraft illustration (NASA/JHUAPL)

NASA announced Thursday it selected the Dragonfly mission to Titan as its next New Frontiers mission. Dragonfly will launch in 2026 and arrive at Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in 2034. The spacecraft, equipped with eight rotors, will be able to fly through Titan's dense atmosphere, traveling from a landing site near the moon's equator to a large crater 175 kilometers away over the course of two and a half years. Scientists will use Dragonfly to better understand Titan's composition and chemistry, which contains the building blocks for life much like the early Earth. NASA said it selected Dragonfly after addressing a number of technical risks with the original proposal for the mission. Dragonfly beat out CAESAR, a comet sample return mission.