<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
NASA has announced a plan to explore the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan.<\/p>\n
The space agency made the announcement in a media teleconference June 27 afternoon, detailing its vision of a robotic rotorcraft dubbed Dragonfly that will collect samples and measure soil composition in search for signs of habitability.<\/p>\n
The enormous, icy moon is said to be the most Earth-like world in the solar system, and previous findings by the Cassini mission suggest it holds some of the ingredients necessary for the emergence of life.<\/p>\n
Dragonfly will launch in 2026 as part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, and is expected to arrive at Titan in 2034.<\/p>\n
‘Dragonfly is a bold, game-changing way to explore the solar system,’ said APL Director Ralph Semmel.<\/p>\n
‘This mission is a visionary combination of creativity and technical risk-taking that will help us unravel some of the most critical mysteries of the universe — including, possibly, the keys to our origins.’ <\/p>\n
Initially, Dragonfly will carry out a 2.7-year mission to explore different sites across Titan, including dunes and impact craters.<\/p>\n
Observations from the Cassini mission indicate these areas once held liquid water and complex organic materials.<\/p>\n
The dual quadcopter will sample these organic surface materials and measure their composition in effort to characterize the large moon’s habitability.<\/p>\n
Dragonfly will first touchdown in an equatorial area known as the ‘Shangri-La’ dune fields, which have been compared to the Namibian dunes in southern Africa.<\/p>\n
It will then complete ‘leapfrog’ flights of around 5 miles (8km) each to hop to other areas, stopping to take samples from each site.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Dragonfly will make its way to the Selk impact crater, where scientists have spotted evidence of last liquid water, organic (carbon-containing) molecules, and energy.<\/p>\n
These, together, are said to be the building blocks for life.<\/p>\n
‘We don’t know the steps that were taken on Earth to get from chemistry to biology, but we do know that a lot of that prebiotic chemistry is actually happening on Titan today.<\/p>\n
Titan is the largest of Saturn’s 62 known moons and sits 886 million miles (1.4 billion kilometers) from the sun.<\/p>\n
This distance means temperatures at the surface are frigid – according to NASA, Titan’s surface temperature is around minus 290 degrees Fahrenheit (-179 Celsius).<\/p>\n
Surface pressure is much higher than we’re used to as well, at about 50 percent higher than Earth’s. <\/p>\n
(Mailonline)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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