NASA officially approves $3.35 billion mission to explore Saturn’s moon Titan

NASA has officially approved the Dragonfly mission for full-scale development, marking a significant step towards exploring Saturn’s largest moon using a quadcopter drone.

Officials from the agency disclosed the outcome of Dragonfly’s confirmation review last week. This review serves as a crucial milestone for most NASA projects, signifying the agency’s formal commitment to the finalization of design, construction, and launch phases of a space mission. Typically, the conclusion of a confirmation review for any mission establishes both budgetary and scheduling commitments.

Artist’s illustration of Dragonfly soaring over the dunes of Titan

Nicky Fox, associate administrator of NASA’s science mission directorate, expressed enthusiasm about the Dragonfly mission, stating, “Dragonfly is an extraordinary scientific endeavor that has garnered widespread community interest, and we are eager to progress further with this mission. Venturing into Titan’s terrain will expand the horizons of rotorcraft exploration beyond Earth.”

In the case of Dragonfly, NASA has confirmed the mission with a total lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion and set a launch date for July 2028. This represents nearly twice the initial proposed cost of the mission and a delay of over two years from its original selection in 2019, according to NASA sources.

Surpassing Budgetary Constraints It’s not unexpected for costs to escalate in a mission as groundbreaking as Dragonfly. Upon reaching Titan, the eight-bladed rotorcraft lander will traverse the surface of Saturn’s misty moon, investigating environments abundant with organic molecules, the fundamental building blocks of life.

Dragonfly will be the pioneer robotic explorer to touch down on a celestial body other than the Moon and Mars, and only the second flying drone to explore another planet, following NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter on Mars. Dragonfly will surpass Ingenuity in mass by over 200 times and will operate six times farther from Earth.

Despite its remote location in the frigid outer reaches of the Solar System, Titan bears similarities to ancient Earth. Cloaked in an orange haze, Saturn’s largest moon boasts sand dunes and methane lakes across its surface.

With temperatures plunging to around minus 290° Fahrenheit (minus 179° Celsius), water ice on Titan behaves akin to bedrock. Previous observations by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft revealed dynamic weather systems on the hazy moon, including evidence of hydrocarbon precipitation and winds causing ripples on Titan’s methane lakes.

Undoubtedly, Titan presents itself as an enigmatic world. Much of our understanding about Titan stems from data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft and the European Space Agency’s Huygens probe, which landed on Titan’s surface in 2005. Although Huygens transmitted data for a mere 72 minutes, it provided the first-ever images from Titan’s surface.

Dragonfly is poised to explore Titan for approximately three years, traversing tens of kilometers roughly once per month to analyze the prebiotic chemistry of Titan’s surface, examine its dense atmosphere, and seek out potential biosignatures indicative of life. The mission plans to investigate over 30 locations within Titan’s equatorial region, as outlined by Elizabeth Turtle, Dragonfly’s principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Elizabeth Turtle emphasized the significance of the Dragonfly mission, stating, “The Dragonfly mission presents an extraordinary opportunity to delve into an oceanic world in a manner never before attempted. Our team is dedicated and enthusiastic about conducting this unparalleled examination of the intricate carbon chemistry present on Titan’s surface, facilitated by innovative technological advancements.”

However, such ambitious endeavors come with considerable costs. NASA greenlit Dragonfly for initial development in 2019, following a proposal by Turtle’s science team through NASA’s New Frontiers program, renowned for spearheading medium-class Solar System exploration missions. Notably, the New Frontiers program boasts a rich history, including the New Horizons mission to Pluto in 2015, the Juno mission to Jupiter, and the OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission.

With a lifecycle cost of $3.35 billion, Dragonfly surpasses the budget of any previous New Frontiers missions. In 2019, when NASA selected Dragonfly, the mission was subject to a cost cap of $850 million (equivalent to $1 billion adjusted for inflation) to cover expenses until launch. Notably, this budget cap excluded launch costs and post-launch spacecraft operations. However, the costs initially within the budget cap escalated to $2.1 billion after inflation, according to NASA estimates.

Since 2019, NASA encountered various challenges necessitating multiple revisions to the Dragonfly mission plan due to funding constraints, exacerbated by the impacts of the pandemic and supply chain disruptions. These revisions included an extensive redesign phase, as stated by the agency.

During this period, NASA directed Dragonfly managers to postpone the launch from 2026 to 2027, requiring a transition from a medium-lift to a heavy-lift launcher. Consequently, NASA increased funding for Dragonfly to accommodate the larger rocket. The updated launch window in July 2028 will necessitate a high-energy launch, likely utilizing a SpaceX Falcon Heavy or a United Launch Alliance Vulcan rocket. The selection of a launch provider is anticipated later this year.

Cumulatively, these factors contributed to the escalation of Dragonfly’s lifecycle cost to $3.35 billion, aligning it more closely with flagship-class interplanetary missions rather than cost-capped projects. Previous New Frontiers missions have incurred costs ranging from $1 billion to $1.5 billion, while NASA’s forthcoming flagship planetary science probe, Europa Clipper, is estimated to cost approximately $5 billion.

NASA’s endorsement of Dragonfly comes amid budgetary constraints affecting the agency, particularly within its planetary science division. The agency is reassessing plans for its ambitious Mars Sample Return mission to mitigate burgeoning costs. Additionally, NASA has deferred the solicitation of proposals for the next New Frontiers mission following Dragonfly.

Despite the heightened costs, Dragonfly avoided cancellation, primarily attributed to budgetary constraints within NASA rather than mismanagement within the Dragonfly project itself.

Assuming a launch in July 2028, Dragonfly is slated to reach Titan by December 2034. Encased within a heat shield and aeroshell, Dragonfly will penetrate Titan’s atmosphere and deploy a parachute for a gradual descent to the surface spanning nearly two hours. Subsequently, the quadcopter will alight on the ground using its fixed landing skids.

Titan’s atmosphere, four times denser than Earth’s, prolongs the descent process compared to landers entering Earth’s or Mars’ atmospheres. However, the heightened air density on Titan offers favorable flying conditions for Dragonfly’s exploration endeavors.