\n<\/p>\n
NASA has been given the go-ahead to send a flying drone-like lander to explore Titan, the largest of Saturn\u2019s 146 moons. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Targeting a July 2028 launch, the agency announced on Tuesday<\/a> that it can now complete the final design for Dragonfly<\/a> \u2014 a Mars rover-sized rotorcraft that will be used to detect \u201cprebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and the early Earth before life developed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n If all goes according to plan, the eight-rotor drone is scheduled to arrive at Titan in 2034, where it will fly to dozens of \u201cpromising locations\u201d to characterize the habitability of Titan\u2019s environment and hunt for any signs that life once existed on the organic-rich moon. Titan\u2019s denser atmosphere (around four times that of Earth\u2019s) will aid the rotorcraft to \u201chop\u201d up to five miles once per full Titan day (16 Earth days).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Dragonfly is expected to cover over 108 miles over the course of its 32-month mission \u2014 more distance than all of NASA\u2019s Mars and Earth-Moon rovers combined. NASA estimates the rotorcraft will have a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion, roughly twice the expenditure predicted when the project was announced in 2019<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cDragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission,\u201d said Science Mission Directorate associate administrator Nicky Fox in NASA\u2019s press release. \u201cExploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft outside of Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n