NASA Is Sending a Rotorcraft to Titan in 2027. Here's Where It Will Land.
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2022 7:08 pm
NASA Is Sending a Rotorcraft to Titan in 2027. Here's Where It Will Land.
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-is-se ... -will-land
Smothered in a hazy atmosphere that hides shallow lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, Titan is one weird world we're dying to look at up close. Which is why NASA is preparing to launch a robotic rotocraft to scope out the scenery in 2027.
We now have a better idea of just what kind of scenery awaits NASA's Dragonfly mission.
Due to arrive on Saturn's largest moon in 2034, the lander will eventually set itself down in the Shangri-la dune field near the Selk crater. Researchers describe it as a "scientifically remarkable area" worthy of exploration, and we still have plenty more to learn about it.
A new study maps six specific parts of the region, identifying it as a place likely to be covered by sand dunes and broken up, icy ground. The work will provide a foundation for models and hypotheses that can be tested by Dragonfly once the probe lands.
"Dragonfly will land in an equatorial, dry region of Titan – a frigid, thick-atmosphere, hydrocarbon world," says planetary scientist Léa Bonnefoy, from Cornell University in New York.
https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-is-se ... -will-land
Smothered in a hazy atmosphere that hides shallow lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, Titan is one weird world we're dying to look at up close. Which is why NASA is preparing to launch a robotic rotocraft to scope out the scenery in 2027.
We now have a better idea of just what kind of scenery awaits NASA's Dragonfly mission.
Due to arrive on Saturn's largest moon in 2034, the lander will eventually set itself down in the Shangri-la dune field near the Selk crater. Researchers describe it as a "scientifically remarkable area" worthy of exploration, and we still have plenty more to learn about it.
A new study maps six specific parts of the region, identifying it as a place likely to be covered by sand dunes and broken up, icy ground. The work will provide a foundation for models and hypotheses that can be tested by Dragonfly once the probe lands.
"Dragonfly will land in an equatorial, dry region of Titan – a frigid, thick-atmosphere, hydrocarbon world," says planetary scientist Léa Bonnefoy, from Cornell University in New York.