NASA opens Dragonfly passenger list for Titan mission

NASA said members of the public could send their names aboard Dragonfly, the NASA rotorcraft planned to explore Titan. Names included on a microchip aboard the rotorcraft would be accompanied by a personalized digital boarding pass commemorating their place on the mission.

The public could secure a place on Dragonfly’s passenger list until 11:59 p.m. EST Jan. 15, 2027. NASA described Dragonfly as the first science mission to fly and explore the surface of another world.

Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, said Dragonfly would conduct the first-ever rotorcraft science mission. Fox said NASA would explore Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, while searching for signs of habitability on a distant world that is most similar to our own. Fox said NASA would bring humanity along on the mission.

Dragonfly was scheduled to launch in 2028 and travel to Titan. NASA described Titan as having a thick atmosphere, rivers and lakes of liquid methane, sweeping dunes and organic material. After arriving in 2034, Dragonfly would fly to different locations on the moon and explore its diverse environments.

NASA said Dragonfly would search for clues about prebiotic chemistry, the chemistry that came before biology, to help scientists understand the ingredients and conditions for life. The rotorcraft was being assembled at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.

The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory directed Dragonfly’s design and build and led the mission for NASA. Elizabeth Turtle of APL was the principal investigator. NASA said Dragonfly was the fourth mission in its New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency’s Science Mission Directorate.