Inside Nasa’s £3,350,000,000 Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan

A Dragonfly is heading to Saturn – as Nasa has been given the final permission it needs to launch its Dragonfly mission to Saturn’s moon Titan in the coming years.

The American space agency’s mission hopes to advance our understanding of life’s origins, and will hopefully become the first mobile robot explorer to touch down on any planetary body besides the Moon and Mars.

Dragonfly will be the second flying drone to explore another planet – the first being Nasa’s ingenuity helicopter on Mars. 

Here’s all you need to know about the mission.

When will Nasa’s Dragonfly mission launch? 

Now that the mission has been approved for development, Dragonfly will aim to launch in July 2028. 

Initially, the plan was to see lift-off in 2026, but the mission needed a bigger rocket, and therefore more funding.

This saw the mission pushed back to 2027, then to 2028, as Dragonfly will require a high-energy launch, and it may even fly into space on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy or a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. 

The rocket that will take Dragonfly to Titan will be confirmed later this year. 

Dr Nicky Fox, associate administrator of Nasa’s science mission directorate, said: ‘Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next steps on this mission. 

‘Exploring Titan will push the boundaries of what we can do with rotorcraft outside of Earth.’

How much will Nasa’s Dragonfly mission cost? 

Dragonfly is expensive and will cost Nasa roughly $3.35 billion. 

When Nasa chose to fly Dragonfly in 2019, the mission had an estimated cost cap of $850 million – $1 billion when adjusted for inflation, just to get it to the launch pad.

This limit did not include the launch or costs to operate the Dragonfly spacecraft after launch, and the costs under the initial cost cap have increased to $2.1 billion.

Then, including the change in launcher, from medium-lift to a heavy-lift, costs have mounted up to $3.35 billion. 

What will Nasa’s Dragonfly mission do on Titan?

This historic mission will aim to land on Titan in 2034. 

Dragonfly is a double-rotor quadcopter designed to fly around around 30 locations on Titan. 

Dr Elizabeth Turtle, Dragonfly’s principal investigator, said: ‘The Dragonfly mission is an incredible opportunity to explore an ocean world in a way that we have never done before.

‘The team is dedicated and enthusiastic about accomplishing this unprecedented investigation of the complex carbon chemistry that exists on the surface of Titan and the innovative technology bringing this first-of-its-kind space mission to life.’

In total, the vehicle has eight rotors, with each measuring 1 meter in length. The vehicle mass is expected to be around 450 kg. 

When Dragonfly has completed its cruise portion, it will enter Titan’s thick atmosphere using a heatshield, and deploy its drogue chute and then a larger chute. 

Once it is low enough, the heatshield will be ejected and the robot will be activated and dropped mid-air to begin its first flight to locate a landing spot.

When it lands, Dragonfly will finish system checkouts, communicate back to Earth, and prepare for its first scientific mission.

Nasa said the robot will spend at least one Titan day (one Tsol, equivalent to 16 Earth days) at each site before moving on. 

It will spend the Titan night (eight Earth days) charging its batteries using its radioisotope thermoelectric generator before each flight. 

It is expected to cover roughly 180 km over the course of the 2.7 Earth-year mission, ending up in 80 km diameter Selk Crater, north of the initial landing site.