Home » Technology » NASA Selects SpaceX for $256.6 Million Dragonfly Mission to Explore Saturn’s Moon Titan

NASA Selects SpaceX for $256.6 Million Dragonfly Mission to Explore Saturn’s Moon Titan

NASA has selected SpaceX as the provider of services related to the launch of the Dragonfly mission, a rotor-equipped spacecraft under the New Frontiers program to explore Saturn’s moon Titan. This mission will take samples from the surrounding environment to determine their chemical composition under different geological conditions, furthering our long-term search for the basic building blocks of life. The firm’s fixed price contract is worth $256.6 million, which includes launch services and other mission-related costs. According to the current schedule, Dragonfly is expected to be launched between July 5 and 25, 2028. The launch will be carried out by the Falcon Heavy rocket, which will be sent launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Dragonfly mission represents an innovative approach to studying space bodies. It will use a lander with rotors that will be able to fly between different places on the largest moon of the planet Saturn. With partners from around the world involved, the probe’s scientific equipment is expected to help characterize the habitability of the environment on Titan and the evolution of prebiotic chemical processes on the moon, where Carbon-rich materials can mix with liquid water for a long time. hour. Dragonfly will also search for chemical signatures of whether water or hydrocarbon-based life once existed on this moon.

Translated from:
https://www.nasa.gov/

Image Sources:
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/dragonfly-inflight.webp

2024-11-27 14:00:00
#special #probe #Dragonfly #fly #Falcon #Heavy #Kosmonautix.cz

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