Since our class is coming to a close, I have been curious about future astronomical missions. What will the students who take ASTR 2110 learn that we do not have access to yet?
One of NASA’s upcoming missions in partnership with Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, is called Dragonfly and it will be observing the surface of Saturn’s moon Titan! Expected to launch in 2028, Dragonfly will journey to Titan and go down through its calm atmosphere to observe the ocean world! This will provide insight as to the kinds of chemical interactions that might have occurred before Earth was inhabitable.
We already have some knowledge of Titan from Voyager II, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Cassini spacecraft. Cassini taught us about the surface of Titan including lakes, rivers, liquid ethane and methane seas, and sand dunes. It even showed that Titan might have some sort of rain.
Dragonfly is going to sample materials from these different terrains on Titan’s surface to determine if there is or could be habitability on the moon. While in flight Dragonfly will determine more about the contents of Titan’s atmosphere and provide us with images of the surface.
It makes sense why NASA would want to launch a mission like this; it will tell us about a world somewhat similar to ours, one with an ocean. We have been wondering why some planets do not have water and just how much liquid water is important to sustaining life. The Dragonfly mission will give us insight into the conditions needed to sustain life through the presence of liquid water. Dragonfly will no doubt prove to be super helpful to make sense of our own planet.
So what do you think about the Dragonfly mission? Will the results of this in 5 years from now change what we learn about the Giant Planet Moons? I think that the students in ASTR 2110 in the year 2030 are in for some great treats after these missions. It really shows just how fascinating space exploration is, we are always learning more and enhancing our education!
To learn even more about the mission and watch some explainer videos, visit the Dragonfly website here!
After All is Said and Sun 
That sounds like an awesome mission to keep track of over the years! We can gain so many new understandings about Titan and possibly even Saturn from this mission so I hope everything goes according to plan with this one. Will Dragonfly only be observing Titan or will it try to observe some of Saturn’s other moons as well? Let me know.
LikeLike
Thanks for the comment! Dragonfly will only be observing Titan because of its water content and the funds needed to support a mission like this!
LikeLike
It will be fascinating to see what Dragonfly and similar future missions unveil about these distant worlds. I’m curious whether any groundbreaking discoveries from these missions will reshape our understanding of the universe and the origins of our planet. I also wonder how frequently such missions will occur in the future, given their considerable cost and duration. I’m eager to see which other worlds we will explore soon. Really interesting stuff.
LikeLike
Hi Adriana – This is an awesome post! First of all, Dragonfly is the coolest name they could’ve given this mission. Also, it is so cool all of the new information that we will be able to gather from this mission, and how the information we learn here might open up new doors in the future! It seems like every big breakthrough just leads to the next!
LikeLike