NASA has confirmed the Dragonfly mission to Titan. Departure in July 2028

With the release of NASA’s budget request for fiscal year 2025, the Agency has confirmed the Dragonfly mission to the moon Titan of Saturn. Rescheduled several times due to funding constraints in fiscal years 2020 to 2022, and additional costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the mission was last postponed from 2027 to 2028 to early December 2023. Everything, however , was still in doubt.

Now NASA has declared that the project will continue. It will have a total life cycle cost of $3.35 billion and a launch date set for July 2028. To make up for the delay in arriving at Titan, now scheduled for 2034, NASA has provided additional funding for a heavy throwerto shorten the cruise phase of the mission.

The Agency’s decision allows the mission to proceed until the final project is completed. This will be followed by the construction of the various components of the mission and the testing of the entire spacecraft and scientific instruments. Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said:

Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission, attracting broad interest from the community. We are excited to take the next steps in this mission. Titan exploration will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotary craft outside of Earth.

Delayed, but no longer at risk

In early 2023, after three years of delays, postponements and uncertainties, the Dragonfly mission passed all preliminary design review success criteria. At that time, however, it was asked to develop an updated budget and programme, to accommodate the limited funding available to the Science Mission Directorate.

The updated plan was submitted and conditionally approved between late November and early December 2023, pending the outcome of the fiscal year 2025 budget process. Among other things, the plan included a postponement of the departure of the mission to 2028. In the meantime, the mission was authorized to proceed with design and manufacturing work, to ensure that it still remained on schedule.

On March 11, 2024, NASA submitted its 2025 budget request. Within the budget, the Agency projected that the Dragonfly mission is continued and that its lifetime cost is $3.35 billion. This reflects a cost increase of approximately two times the proposed cost, but also a delay of more than two years since the mission was originally selected in 2019 as the fourth mission of the NASA program New Frontiers.

What will Dragonfly do?

Dragonfly will be a rotor lander, similar to a large quadcopter with dual rotors, for a total of eight propellers. It will be able to fly at 10 m/s up to 4 km altitude, taking advantage of Titan’s dense atmosphere and low gravity.

The aircraft will therefore be able to visit different areas of the surface thanks to the possibility of moving in flight. The use of radioisotopes for energy and advanced algorithms will allow it to operate in extreme conditions, especially temperature.

The main objective of the mission, beyond the in-depth study of the moon, is the research of prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and early Earth, before life developed. Titan, in fact, in addition to being the only moon with a permanent atmosphere in the Solar System, is also characterized by a methane cycle similar to the water cycle on Earth. The possibility that life forms based on elements other than those of terrestrial life could have developed is real.

Dragonfly was designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), which manages the mission for NASA. The PI is Elizabeth Turtle, of the APL.

Here is the NASA page dedicated to the mission.