What is NASA's Dragonfly mission? Read all about the life-hunting venture to Titan

With the search for signs of life already in progress on Mars, NASA is now expanding its reach to the outer solar system. For that, the agency has planned a new mission named Dragonfly which would explore Titan, Saturn's largest of the 53 known Moons. Slated for launch in 2027, the mission involves delivering an 8-bladed rotorcraft to the ringed planet's Moon in 2034. 

Mission Dragonfly and its objectives

Once the rotorcraft is delivered on the icy and richly organic surface, NASA will commence its 2.7-year-long (32-month) baseline mission. During this period, the Dragonfly will explore Titan’s diverse environments and take advantage of its nitrogen-based atmosphere which is four times denser than that of Earth. According to NASA, Titan is larger than the planet Mercury and is located around 1.4 billion kilometres from Earth. 

Interestingly, this mission would mark the first time when NASA flies a multi-rotor vehicle for science on another planet. Besides, Dragonfly would become the first vehicle ever to liftoff with its entire science payload to new places for repeatable and targeted access to surface materials. 

(Saturn's Moon Titan, Image: NASA)

The reason for selecting Titan for exploratory purposes is the environment where liquid water and organic materials, which are key to life, once existed together. Astronomers have confirmed that Titan has a subsurface ocean of liquid water, methane lakes and rivers on the surface. It even has clouds that rain methane and other complex organics are also formed in the atmosphere and fall like light snow. 

During the exploratory period, Dragonfly would investigate the moon’s atmospheric and surface properties, subsurface ocean, liquid reservoirs, as well as areas where water coupled with organic material might have existed. "Since the basic building blocks of life on Titan are expected to be similar to those on Earth before life arose, Dragonfly’s instruments will help advance astrobiology and study how far pre-life chemistry may have progressed", NASA said in a statement.

The Dragonfly mission was selected in 2019 as part of NASA's New Frontiers Program which also includes the already launched New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, Juno to Jupiter, and OSIRIS-REx to the asteroid Bennu.