{"id":17998,"date":"2019-06-27T21:57:51","date_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasa-picks-dragonfly-mission-to-send-a-nuclear-drone-to-saturnian-moon-titan\/"},"modified":"2019-06-27T21:57:51","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T13:57:51","slug":"nasa-picks-dragonfly-mission-to-send-a-nuclear-drone-to-saturnian-moon-titan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasa-picks-dragonfly-mission-to-send-a-nuclear-drone-to-saturnian-moon-titan\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA picks Dragonfly mission to send a nuclear drone to Saturnian moon Titan"},"content":{"rendered":"
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An artist\u2019s conception shows the Dragonfly probe on the dunes of Titan. (NASA \/ JHUAPL Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NASA has chosen to commit up to $850 million to creating an interplanetary probe unlike any seen before: a rotor-equipped spacecraft that will fly through the smoggy atmosphere of Titan, Saturn\u2019s biggest moon.<\/p>\n

The Dragonfly mission will be managed by Johns Hopkins University\u2019s Applied Physics Laboratory on NASA\u2019s behalf, with its launch scheduled for 2026 on a rocket to be named later, and its landing due amid the dunes of Titan in 2034.<\/p>\n

This won\u2019t be the first landing on Titan: That happened back in 2005, when the Cassini spacecraft dropped off the Huygens lander to send back the first pictures from the moon\u2019s cloud-obscured surface. Observations from Cassini and Huygens confirmed that chilly Titan held rivers and lakes of liquid methane and ethane, and that methane fell like rain on the icy terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cTitan is the only other place in the solar system known to have an Earthlike cycle of liquids flowing across its surface,\u201d Thomas Zurbuchen, NASA\u2019s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, said in a tweet. \u201cDragonfly will explore the processes that shape this extraordinary environment filled with organic compounds \u2013 the building blocks to life as we know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s announcement was the climax of a years-long process to choose the next mission for NASA\u2019s New Frontiers portfolio, which supports projects costing no more than $850 million. Past selections include the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the Juno mission to Jupiter. and the OSIRIS-REx mission to bring back a sample from asteroid Bennu.<\/p>\n

Dragonfly was chosen over the other finalist, CAESAR (Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return), which proposed bringing back samples from the comet that was visited by the European Space Agency\u2019s Rosetta probe. Word of the decision sparked cheers of joy and sighs of disappointment on Twitter, as well as at gatherings such as the Astrobiology Science Conference in Bellevue, Wash.<\/p>\n