DraGNS

Instrument Type
Gamma-Ray and Neutron

DraGNS, which is being built in collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, will measure the elemental composition of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, using gamma rays and neutrons. The instrument’s reconnaissance measurements will help the Dragonfly operations and science teams determine ideal landing sites for detailed chemical analyses; its full compositional measurements will feed site characterization and science interpretation at each landing location.

DraGNS will illuminate Titan’s surface materials with energetic neutrons that produce gamma rays, from which the instrument will measure elemental concentrations. DraGNS will specifically quantify the elemental concentrations of carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorous, sulfur and nitrogen that can indicate prebiotic chemistry, as well as the salty inorganic elements sodium, chlorine and potassium.

DraGNS components include a Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS), which uses a high-purity germanium crystal that is passively cooled with Titan’s cryogenic atmosphere; the Field Illumination with Radioactive Elements (FIRE), a radioactive neutron source that will illuminate Titan’s surface with neutrons that generate the gamma rays detected by the GRS; a Neutron Spectrometer (NS), which will measure thermal and epithermal neutrons generated by Dragonfly’s nuclear power source; and a Data Processing Unit (DPU) that serves as the instrument’s electronic “brain.”