Dragonfly (Titan space probe)

Dragonfly is a NASA mission, selected as the fourth mission in the New Frontiers program, scheduled to launch in 2028 and arrive at Saturn's moon Titan in 2034. It is a rotorcraft lander designed to explore the prebiotic chemistry and habitability of Titan.

Dragonfly will be the first vehicle to fly across an extraterrestrial moon's atmosphere. It will leverage Titan's dense atmosphere and low gravity to travel hundreds of kilometers, far exceeding the distance traveled by previous Mars rovers. The mission is expected to conduct approximately 2.7 years of exploration.

The primary science goals of Dragonfly are to:

• Search for chemical biosignatures in different geologic settings.
• Investigate the organic chemistry present on Titan, which is believed to be similar to that of early Earth.
• Study Titan's atmosphere and surface processes.
• Characterize Titan's subsurface ocean using seismic and electromagnetic methods.
• Evaluate the potential for prebiotic chemistry to progress to life on Titan.

The Dragonfly rotorcraft lander is equipped with a suite of instruments, including a mass spectrometer (DraMS), a gamma-ray and neutron spectrometer (DraGNS), a chemistry and camera (DraCam) suite, and a seismometer (Draco). These instruments will enable Dragonfly to analyze the composition of Titan's surface and atmosphere, and to search for evidence of past or present life. The mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).