The Dragonfly Mission to Titan: Exploration of an Ocean World

Saturn’s largest moon is a high priority for exploration. Titan is an ocean world and the only moon in our solar system with a dense atmosphere, which supports an Earth-like hydrological cycle of methane clouds, rain, and liquid that flows across the surface to fill lakes and seas. The complex organic material on Titan's surface makes it an ideal destination for studying the conditions and kinds of chemical interactions that occurred before life developed on Earth.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory space scientist and Dragonfly Principal Investigator Elizabeth “Zibi” Turtle describes the science and technology driving the mission, which could revolutionize how we explore the solar system.

Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander – proposed to NASA's New Frontiers Program – designed to take advantage of Titan's environment to sample materials and determine surface composition in different settings. This bold mission concept includes the capability to explore diverse locations to characterize the habitability of Titan's environment, to investigate how far prebiotic chemistry has progressed, and even to search for chemical signatures that could indicate water-based or hydrocarbon-based life.