NASA -- The space agency is planning to send the Dragonfly mission to the second-largest moon of the solar system to find signs of habitability, among many scientific goals. The mission is set to launch in 2026, but the planning for it begins this year. The Dragonfly is a rotorcraft that is specifically built to be able to fly through Titan's atmosphere and safely land on its surface too.
What may be considered as genuinely exceptional to this expedition is the fact that it is the first outer space mission to be led by a woman. Elizabeth Turtle, a scientist from the John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, will be leading the team that will handle the Dragonfly as it traverses through the atmosphere and eventually the surface of the Titan.
Between the years 2004 and 2017, several close flybys of the Cassini Spacecraft of NASA and the successful landing by the Huygens probe ignited the desire to collect more data about the Titan. They found hydrocarbon sand on the surface of the moon, making it a dynamic one. There were also liquid methane lakes.
The scientists observing the Titan from afar also recognized the cycle of evaporation and precipitation involving the liquid methane similar to the water cycle on Earth. Several other facts about the Titan have been collected over the years of research. This includes the fact that Titan, like the other Saturn moons Enceladus and Europa of the planet Jupiter, have internal oceans found deep under its surface. Scientists call it Ocean Worlds, and it is precisely the reason why they have targeted it for exploration. They wanted to find out if any traces of it would allow life to survive.
The surface of Titan comes with a blanket of hydrocarbon, sand-like particles made of organic molecules and maybe even observable solid water ice. The extremely low temperatures on the surface are making it impossible for life to survive on it. Or it could like there is no living organism that people are aware of will be able to survive the cold.
If the environment of Titan is something close to Earth, it would be possible for heat to be transported from underground to the surface gradually traveling upward. The survival of life may be possible on this moon, and scientists are looking forward to finding it out.
The Dragonfly mission is set to uncover more by 2030 once it has touched down on the surface of the Titan by 2026. It may be able to collect data concerning its geological and chemistry make-up. They may collect data that will help answer some of life's big questions and how life could survive in other parts of the solar system.
