America's "Dragonfly" Overcomes Key Obstacle!
Set to fly to Saturn's moon Titan in 2028.
Article published on April 27th by Space News.
This is an illustration showing NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft cruising through the skies of Saturn's largest moon, Titan.
Dragonfly is a car-sized nuclear-powered rotorcraft designed to investigate whether Titan has the potential to support life; it has passed its critical design review.
"This means that the design, manufacturing, integration, and testing plans for the Dragonfly mission have been approved, and the mission can now focus on building the spacecraft itself," the NASA statement read.
Alien life may exist on Saturn's large moon, Titan—but finding it will be very difficult.
The $3.35 billion Dragonfly mission was first selected by NASA in 2019, with guidance and construction led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Maryland.
The mission has faced delays and cost overruns, but scientists believe studying Saturn's moon, Titan, is a high priority because it may harbor alien life.
The mission is planned to launch in July 2028 or later aboard SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Then, the spacecraft will begin a nearly seven-year deep-space journey to the Saturn system, with the aim of spending more than three years studying Titan's icy and diverse surface.
Equipped with cameras, sensors, and samplers, Dragonfly will assess Titan's habitability, search for prebiotic chemistry, and look for signs of potential life.
Titan is Saturn's largest moon and the second-largest moon in the solar system after Jupiter's Ganymede. Its dense, hazy atmosphere covers a surface composed of hydrocarbon dunes and methane lakes. Beneath its icy crust, scientists believe there is a salty underground ocean, which increases the possibility that Titan might harbor life.
I'm really looking forward to it.
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/1830505143875659/
Disclaimer: This article represents the views of the author.