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As it happenedended

Nasa announcement: Mission to send spacecraft to Saturn's moon Titan revealed - as it happened

Andrew Griffin,Tom Batchelor
Thursday 27 June 2019 16:49 EDT
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NASA announces a new Solar System mission

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Nasa will send a lander mission to Saturn's largest moon Titan to search for signs of life, the space agency has revealed.

The Dragonfly mission will launch in 2026 and arrive at Titan in 2034.

Revealing the mission in an announcement live-streamed online, Jim Bridenstine, Nasa administrator, said the space agency was "pushing the boundaries of human knowledge and expanding the limits of technology".

Please wait a moment while the liveblog loads

Here's Jim Bridenstine's big announcement.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:10

Nasa will be heading for Selk Crater on Titan. (It won't land there, but it has the nice feature of being able to hope up and fly across, making more than 24 trips as it hovers across.)

There, all of the ingredients for life have been mixed up together. That will offer a glimpse at the conditions that helped create life on Earth.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:12

The questions are starting to come in – first up, how long will Dragonfly be able to live? Nasa says it will last for about two and a half years, doing about two-dozen flights and travelling around 180 kilometres. (Though Nasa often underestimates how well its spacecraft will last, and they often end up doing much more research than immediately expected.)

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:14

Will Dragonfly have wheels, or just propellers? Just propellers. But they are very precise, so it will be able to hop around to places on the world that are of interest.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:15

What rocket is going to send Dragonfly? Nasa doesn't seem to know. The selection won't happen until closer to the launch date – about three years before.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:15

It's an eight year journey. It will set off in 2026 and won't arrive until 2034.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:16

Here's Thomas Zurbruchen, the Associate Administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, making his announcement.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:18

Here we're getting a look at what Dragonfly will look like. This is a 1/4 scale model – it is a "Mars-rover sized drone".

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:18

Getting a bit of a closer look:

That big disc on the top is a high-gain antenna, allowing Dragonfly to communicate with Earth. The ear-looking bits coming out of it are two cameras, allowing it to look around. The holes you can see in the front are cameras – with which Dragonfly is loaded, allowing it to look around.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:21

Here you can see the skids that will allow it to land on the ground. You can also a see a drill shape at the bottom, which allows it to effectively hoover up material into the main body of the drone, and then examine it.

Andrew Griffin27 June 2019 21:21

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