NASA reveals how Saturn’s moon Titan will be drilled

(ORDO NEWS) — NASA‘s new Dragonfly mission will travel to Titan, Saturn’s huge moon, in 2027. It’s a helicopter-shaped lander. The Agency spoke about the research program in its social networks.

The probe, after several years of flight, will reach Titan in the mid-2030s. It will be equipped with a sensitive Dragonfly mass spectrometer (DraMS), which will search for traces of life on the moon of Saturn.

Scientists hope to find signs of prebiotic chemistry on the planet, and their optimism is justified: the soil is rich in carbon, there is an internal ocean and traces of the presence of water in liquid form in the past.

DraMS will automatically transmit experimental data to the Earth, scientists will be able to study them remotely and compare them with the processes that took place on Earth in the early period of its history .

The robotic Dragonfly, thanks to helicopter propellers, will be able to move around the planet, which has low gravity and a dense atmosphere.

This will give a chance for research at various important points. Mass spectrometers will help to clearly determine the composition of the rocks and see possible inclusions of organic matter in them.

The device will take small soil samples (less than a gram) and load them inside the main body of the lander.

There, using a set of tools, DraMS will irradiate samples with an onboard laser or use other research formats provided for by the program.

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