The new mission will be carried out by the Dragonfly drone, or “Dragonfly”, this is the “big brother” of Ingenuity, the Martian unmanned
Dragonfly will land on the equator of Titan in the dune formation zone. It is planned to take soil samples in this place to understand whether there is life here or if it once died out.
Saturn's moon Titan is partly similar to Earth: it has a dense, albeit methane, atmosphere, rain, weather, and the continents are surrounded by seas and oceans.
Dragonfly Objectives:
- search for chemical biosignals,
- study of the active methane cycle,
- the study of prebiotic chemistry currently occurring in Titan's atmosphere and on its surface.
The drone will navigate the satellite usingflights: each new location will be selected based on data already received. At the end of the mission, the drone will fly to the Selk crater, whose diameter is 90 km: on its surface, scientists expect to find signs of mixing water and organic matter.
The drone will travel to Titan in the mid-2030s.
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