NASA is going for a big feat in 2028! They are planning to launch a “Dragonfly Lander” that is headed straight for Saturn’s biggest moon, Titan. Their main goal of this mission is to try to find signs of early life on that planet. This big project is not cheap. Starting at an estimated $3.35 Billion dollars, it will cost NASA lots of money to pull this off.
Titan is interesting to scientists because it is the only other planet known to have liquid. The rivers, lakes and oceans are filled with a substance called methane. This is a substance which can also be found on earth. Another thing that makes this planet so interesting is that it has ice volcanoes. The volcanoes emit water vapor in the atmosphere which can provide suitable life conditions.
Astrophysicist Thomas Zurbuchen is an administrator for NASA’s Science Missions. He says that “Titan is like no other place in our Solar System, and dragonfly is like no other mission.”
The lander is being built at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics lab in Maryland. If all goes as hoped, it should launch from earth in 2028 and land on Titan in 2034.
The Dragonfly is unique because it has a specific shape that allows it to not get damaged on Titan’s rough surface. The lander is able to do small jumps 5 miles across Titan’s surface in 16 days. The mission is 32 months and the lander will travel 108 miles!
The rocket has a lot of scientific tools. The tools will help them take small reading of the surface of the moon and will send data back to NASA to check if there is life. The rocket will be powered by nuclear energy. “Dragonfly will visit a world filled with a wide variety of organic compounds, which are the building blocks of life and could teach us about the origin of life itself,” says Dr. Zurbuchen.
Kolluru, Sowmya. “NASA’s Dragonfly Lander Set To Launch To Saturn’s Largest Moon In 2028.” DOGOnews, DOGO Media, Inc., 09 Jan. 2025, www.dogonews.com/2024/4/27/nasas-dragonfly-lander-set-to-launch-to-saturns-largest-moon-in-2028. Accessed 14 Jan. 2025.
