NASA's Nuclear-Powered Dragonfly Helicopter to See Saturn's Biggest Moon 'Titan'

NASA will launch the highly awaited Dragonfly expedition to Titan, Saturn's largest moon, in June 2027. By 2034, the 450 kg (990 lbs) nuclear-powered quadcopter will land in the Selk crater area and begin exploring Titan's surface and atmosphere to learn more about this satellite.

The voyage will primarily examine the organic environment, active methane cycle, and moon's prebiotic chemistry, as Universe Today reported. These goals help Dragonfly achieve its main purpose of finding evidence of possible life on Titan.

Cassini's Radar Images Revealed

The resolution of the radar pictures from Cassini is around 300 meters per pixel, or the size of a football field. According to study lead author Léa Bonnefey, the team has only explored less than 10% of the surface, and there are still more little rivers and landscapes for them to explore.

Over its circuits of Saturn, the Cassini spacecraft took multiple radar images of Titan and its other larger moons. The orbiter's auxiliary mission, the Huygens lander, was launched on Christmas Day 2004 and began its ascent into Titan's thick atmosphere on January 14.

During its two-hour descent, the lander gathered data on Titan's atmosphere to identify its aerosols and molecules. According to Universe Today, river valleys not visible in the orbiter's radar scans may also be seen in the surface images it returned.

Nearly four times as dense as Earth's atmosphere, Titan's atmosphere is mostly made up of nitrogen (about 95%), methane (about 5%), and other hydrocarbons.

Titan has a gravity of 13.8 percent that of Earth, thus Dragonfly will be able to stay in the air and do drone-like activities while examining Titan's atmosphere, surface, and methane lakes to learn more about the composition of the planet and whether there is any evidence of life.

'Life' on Titan

Since Titan seems to contain all the necessary components for a livable environment, scientists have long suggested that there may be living there. Since the Cassini-Huygens mission spent 13 years between 2004 and 2017 studying Saturn and its moons, this speculative activity has grown significantly.

But now, a team of Cornell researchers, where Bonnefoy led the study, assembled and reviewed radar images acquired by Cassini to determine the properties of the surface. The map accurately depicts the Dragonfly's landing spot, characterized by dunes and partially thawed frozen terrain.

Alex Hayes, an associate professor of astronomy and the director of the Spacecraft Planetary Image Facility, also helped the research team focus on finding and identifying possible livable habitats throughout the Solar System.

"Dragonfly - the first flying machine for a world in the outer solar system - is going to a scientifically remarkable area," said Bonnefoy in a statement.

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