Dragonfly

• An Airborne Science Mission Like No Other

  Never before have humans planned an airborne science mission to another world like Dragonfly.

   The Dragonfly rotorcraft will break the barriers for exploration of other planetary bodies. Instead of being limited to just the region around its landing site, Dragonfly’s rotors will carry it for miles across Titan during its planned 3.3-year mission, stopping to explore a variety of geologically interesting areas along the way, including dunes and Selk Crater.

  Dragonfly is expected to make one flight every 1-2 Titan days, which is called a Tsol and lasts about 16 Earth days.

• Sampling the Surface

  Traveling several miles on each flight through the yellowish, smoggy haze of Titan’s nitrogen-rich atmosphere, Dragonfly will stop at a variety of geologic sites, where it will collect samples of surface material for analysis inside the rotorcraft by a suite of scientific instruments.

   The exploration of these diverse locations will help to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment, investigate how far prebiotic chemistry has progressed, identify compounds of astrobiological interest, and even search for chemical indicators of water-based or hydrocarbon-based life.

Featured Video

Eye on Dragonfly

NASA and Johns Hopkins APL give viewers an inside look at NASA's Dragonfly mission as it reaches another exciting milestone on the path to Saturn's moon Titan. Hear directly from Dragonfly scientists and engineers as they discuss the spacecraft's latest progress through integration and testing, explain how Dragonfly will explore Titan, and answer audience questions about the mission.

• Mission Team

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