NASA will send a giant drone to Saturn’s largest moon

The agency has set the launch date for its Dragonfly rotorcraft to Titan for July 2028.

The agency has set the launch date for its Dragonfly rotorcraft to Titan for July 2028.

NASA has gotten the go-ahead to send a flying drone-like vehicle to explore Titan, the largest of Saturn’s 146 moons. Scheduled for a July 2028 launch, the agency announced Tuesday that it can now finalize the final design of Dragonfly — a Mars rover-sized rotorcraft that will be used to detect «prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and early Earth before the emergence of life».

NASA announced Tuesday that it has been given the go-ahead to send a drone-like craft to Titan, which will be used to detect «prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and early Earth before the emergence of life.

If all goes according to plan, the eight-rotor drone should arrive on Titan in 2034, where it will fly around dozens of «promising locations» to characterize the suitability of Titan’s environment for life and look for any signs that life once existed on the organic-rich moon. Titan’s denser atmosphere (about four times denser than Earth’s) will help the rotorcraft «skip» up to five miles once every full Titanian day (16 Earth days).

Titan’s denser atmosphere (about four times denser than Earth’s) will help the rotorcraft «skip» up to five miles once every full Titanian day (16 Earth days).

Dragonfly is expected to travel more than 108 miles during its 32-month mission — more than all of NASA’s Mars rovers and Earth-Moon rovers combined. NASA estimates the total life-cycle cost of the helicopter will be $3.35 billion, about double what was projected when the project was announced in 2019.

The project is expected to cost $3.35 billion.

«Dragonfly is an impressive science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission» —Nikki Fox, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said in a NASA press release. «Exploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft beyond Earth».

An exploration of Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft beyond Earth.

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Yesterday’s announcement by NASA came at the same time as a farewell to the Ingenuity Martian helicopter, which sent its last transmission back to Earth after its final flight in January.