Artist's rendering of Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Our Contribution

Titan Exploration

Dragonfly is a NASA mission that will explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Led by APL, this revolutionary rotorcraft-lander expedition will study the atmosphere, carbon-based chemistry, and geology of this cold yet Earthlike moon and ultimately advance our understanding of life’s chemical origins. Set to launch in 2027 and reach Titan in the mid-2030s, Dragonfly takes a revolutionary approach to planetary exploration by using a rotorcraft to fly between diverse locations, landing and sampling materials at more than two dozen sites across Titan’s surface.

Contributing Mission Area

Civil Space
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This is Dragonfly, the Johns Hopkins APL mission to Saturn’s moon Titan. It is the next NASA New Frontiers mission. Dragonfly can help us better understand how life developed on Earth by exploring this strange ocean world. With one hop per full Titan day (16 Earth days), the rotorcraft will travel from its initial landing site to cover areas several hundred kilometers away during the planned two-year mission. Despite its unique ability to fly, Dragonfly will spend most of its time on Titan’s surface making science measurements.

This revolutionary mission concept includes the capability to explore diverse locations to characterize the habitability of Titan’s environment, to investigate how far prebiotic chemistry has progressed, and even to search for chemical signatures that could indicate water-based and/or hydrocarbon-based life.

Related Areas of Impact
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