How Will Exploring Saturn's Moon Titan Be Different?

in various places. As part of its exploratory mission. The Dragonfly space probe will look for traces of chemical processes similar to the ones that led to life on Earth, in addition to gathering other information about the Moon's surface

and atmosphere. Dragonfly will launch in six and arrive at Titan, which is eight eighty six million miles that's one point four billion kilometers from the Sun, in four oh Once it's there, the space probe, which is about the size of the Space Agency's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, will turn on eight rotors and fly through titans dense, hazy atmosphere, which is about four times the density of Earth's, and

explore it's still mysterious surface. Titan is the biggest Saturn sixty two moons, and a close second in moon size in our Solar system after Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Titan has a rat is of about sixteen miles or KOs, making it about fifty wider than Earth's Moon, but it's not just tightened size that has made it a long time

object of fascination to scientists. Titan is also the only moon in the Solar System with much of an atmosphere, and it's the only slot in the Solar System besides Earth that's known to have liquid rivers, lakes, and seas on its surface, though the latter are made up of liquid hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. Titans also believe to have an underground ocean of water deep beneath its icy surface that could possibly have harbored some form of

life or may still contain it. The Titan surface is brutally cold, like minus two hundred ninety degrees fahrenheit or one and seventy degrees celsie is cold, but conditions in a potential underground ocean are unknown. Titans thick atmosphere is about nitrogen, with the rest mostly composed of methane that creates a thick, orange colored haze that hangs over the

Moon's surface, making it difficult to observe from Earth. Much of what we do know comes from the European Space Agency's hal Huns spacecraft, which landed on Titan and transmitted data for seventy two minutes in two thousand five, and from NASA's Cassini probe, which did multiple flybys of Titan between two thousand five and twenty seventeen. Hal Hans was actually attached to Cassini for the seven year trip to

Titan's vicinity. Scientists are particularly excited about Dragonfly's ability to fly rather than crawl along the ground, unlike Mars, where NASA also plans to test a small robotic helicopter with large high speed blades in Titan's atmospheres thick enough to enable Dragonfly to attain lift with relatively small rotors and to carry a bigger payload over longer distances than the

experimental copter being sent to Mars. It's expected to cover more than a hundred miles or a hundred and seventy five kilometers during its nearly three year mission on Titan. It will fly in short hops of up to five minutes at a time. We spoke via email with Jason Soderblom, a research scientists in the Department of Earth Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one

of Dragonfly's co investigators. He explained flight allows us to move the lander much greater distances in a short period of time than a traditional rover, allowing us to more efficiently explore Titan. We also spoke via email with Kurt Niber, new Frontiers program scientist for NASA. He said the Dragonfly's design is fundamentally different from the Mars helicopter quote not just because the atmosphere of Titan and Mars are so different,

but because they are different vehicles. The Mars Helicopter is a short lived technology demonstration with no science payload. Dragonfly is a self contained spacecraft designed to pursue a science mission with high autonomy. It's like comparing a self driving car and an electric scooter. Both have wheels, but they have very different purposes and therefore very different designs. The researchers working on Dragonfly are excited about the opportunity to

investigate the giant Moon's many mysteries. Niber said, I'm looking forward to Dragonfly finally giving us detailed answers about this surface of Titan at the small scale, and not just its composition, but also its geology, telling us about the complex organic materials present there and how they interact, and also giving us a good look at surface features like

dunes and the Selk crater. Cassini did a good job at giving us broad answers to this question at the large scale tens of miles, for example, but nothing beats getting down to the surface and actually digging your hands and feet in so to speak. Sotoblam also spoke to this. He said, there's a plethora of unanswered questions about titan surface.

One fundamental question we have yet to answer is what is the composition of Titan's major geologic units, or if the water ice bedrock is exposed anywhere on Titan, or if it's been buried beneath organic gunk. This is because Titan's atmosphere obscures the surface at most wavelengths, limiting our ability to use traditional remote sensing techniques to study the

surface composition. Dragonfly's scrutiny of Titan's surface may also yield insights about the Moon's atmosphere and the chemistry going on there, which could in turn wind up helping us understand more about ourselves. We also spoke with Sarah Horst, an assistant professor in the School of earthen Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University who's also an investigator on the project. She said that chemistry and the atmosphere is interaction with the surface.

Quote is important for understanding the role that atmospheres may play in the origin or evolution of life, and also help us figure out what types of molecules may constitute evidence for life when we're looking at observations far away atmospheres like those of exit planets. Today's episode was written by Patrick J. Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For moreinness and lots of other far out topics, visit

our home planet how stuff Works dot com. And for more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.