NASA Invites Public to Send Names Aboard Dragonfly Rotorcraft Bound for Saturn's Moon Titan
Why It MattersThe mission puts a rotorcraft, a vertical-lift configuration, at the centre of planetary exploration, and shows rotary-wing flight being engineered for conditions far outside Earth's atmosphere.
NASA is inviting the public to send their names aboard the agency's Dragonfly rotorcraft, described as the first science mission to fly and explore the surface of another world. Names will be included on a microchip aboard Dragonfly, and participants will receive a personalized digital boarding pass commemorating their place on the mission. The public can secure a place on Dragonfly's passenger list until a stated deadline at 11:59 p.m.
Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said the mission will fly the first-ever rotorcraft science mission to explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in a search for signs of habitability on a distant world most similar to our own.
The rotorcraft is currently being assembled at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. It is scheduled to launch in 2028 and, after arriving in 2034, will fly to different locations on Titan. The moon has a thick atmosphere, rivers and lakes of liquid methane, sweeping dunes, and a landscape rich in organic material. Dragonfly will explore Titan's diverse environments and search for clues about prebiotic chemistry, the chemistry that came before biology, to help scientists better understand the ingredients and conditions for life.
