Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff Lauren Vogel bomb here. NASA has announced that
Speaker 1: it will launch a space probe called Dragonfly on an
Speaker 1: ambitious mission to Saturn's moon Titan, in which a robotic
Speaker 1: rotorcraft lander will fly around, tighten surface and touch down
Speaker 1: in various places. As part of its exploratory mission. The
Speaker 1: Dragonfly space probe will look for traces of chemical processes
Speaker 1: similar to the ones that led to life on Earth,
Speaker 1: in addition to gathering other information about the Moon's surface
Speaker 1: and atmosphere. Dragonfly will launch in six and arrive at Titan,
Speaker 1: which is eight eighty six million miles that's one point
Speaker 1: four billion kilometers from the Sun, in four oh Once
Speaker 1: it's there, the space probe, which is about the size
Speaker 1: of the Space Agency's Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, will
Speaker 1: turn on eight rotors and fly through titans dense, hazy atmosphere,
Speaker 1: which is about four times the density of Earth's, and
Speaker 1: explore it's still mysterious surface. Titan is the biggest Saturn
Speaker 1: sixty two moons, and a close second in moon size
Speaker 1: in our Solar system after Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Titan has
Speaker 1: a rat is of about sixteen miles or KOs, making
Speaker 1: it about fifty wider than Earth's Moon, but it's not
Speaker 1: just tightened size that has made it a long time
Speaker 1: object of fascination to scientists. Titan is also the only
Speaker 1: moon in the Solar System with much of an atmosphere,
Speaker 1: and it's the only slot in the Solar System besides
Speaker 1: Earth that's known to have liquid rivers, lakes, and seas
Speaker 1: on its surface, though the latter are made up of
Speaker 1: liquid hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane. Titans also believe
Speaker 1: to have an underground ocean of water deep beneath its
Speaker 1: icy surface that could possibly have harbored some form of
Speaker 1: life or may still contain it. The Titan surface is
Speaker 1: brutally cold, like minus two hundred ninety degrees fahrenheit or
Speaker 1: one and seventy degrees celsie is cold, but conditions in
Speaker 1: a potential underground ocean are unknown. Titans thick atmosphere is
Speaker 1: about nitrogen, with the rest mostly composed of methane that
Speaker 1: creates a thick, orange colored haze that hangs over the
Speaker 1: Moon's surface, making it difficult to observe from Earth. Much
Speaker 1: of what we do know comes from the European Space
Speaker 1: Agency's hal Huns spacecraft, which landed on Titan and transmitted
Speaker 1: data for seventy two minutes in two thousand five, and
Speaker 1: from NASA's Cassini probe, which did multiple flybys of Titan
Speaker 1: between two thousand five and twenty seventeen. Hal Hans was
Speaker 1: actually attached to Cassini for the seven year trip to
Speaker 1: Titan's vicinity. Scientists are particularly excited about Dragonfly's ability to
Speaker 1: fly rather than crawl along the ground, unlike Mars, where
Speaker 1: NASA also plans to test a small robotic helicopter with
Speaker 1: large high speed blades in Titan's atmospheres thick enough to
Speaker 1: enable Dragonfly to attain lift with relatively small rotors and
Speaker 1: to carry a bigger payload over longer distances than the
Speaker 1: experimental copter being sent to Mars. It's expected to cover
Speaker 1: more than a hundred miles or a hundred and seventy
Speaker 1: five kilometers during its nearly three year mission on Titan.
Speaker 1: It will fly in short hops of up to five
Speaker 1: minutes at a time. We spoke via email with Jason Soderblom,
Speaker 1: a research scientists in the Department of Earth Atmospheric and
Speaker 1: Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one
Speaker 1: of Dragonfly's co investigators. He explained flight allows us to
Speaker 1: move the lander much greater distances in a short period
Speaker 1: of time than a traditional rover, allowing us to more
Speaker 1: efficiently explore Titan. We also spoke via email with Kurt Niber,
Speaker 1: new Frontiers program scientist for NASA. He said the Dragonfly's
Speaker 1: design is fundamentally different from the Mars helicopter quote not
Speaker 1: just because the atmosphere of Titan and Mars are so different,
Speaker 1: but because they are different vehicles. The Mars Helicopter is
Speaker 1: a short lived technology demonstration with no science payload. Dragonfly
Speaker 1: is a self contained spacecraft designed to pursue a science
Speaker 1: mission with high autonomy. It's like comparing a self driving
Speaker 1: car and an electric scooter. Both have wheels, but they
Speaker 1: have very different purposes and therefore very different designs. The
Speaker 1: researchers working on Dragonfly are excited about the opportunity to
Speaker 1: investigate the giant Moon's many mysteries. Niber said, I'm looking
Speaker 1: forward to Dragonfly finally giving us detailed answers about this
Speaker 1: surface of Titan at the small scale, and not just
Speaker 1: its composition, but also its geology, telling us about the
Speaker 1: complex organic materials present there and how they interact, and
Speaker 1: also giving us a good look at surface features like
Speaker 1: dunes and the Selk crater. Cassini did a good job
Speaker 1: at giving us broad answers to this question at the
Speaker 1: large scale tens of miles, for example, but nothing beats
Speaker 1: getting down to the surface and actually digging your hands
Speaker 1: and feet in so to speak. Sotoblam also spoke to this.
Speaker 1: He said, there's a plethora of unanswered questions about titan surface.
Speaker 1: One fundamental question we have yet to answer is what
Speaker 1: is the composition of Titan's major geologic units, or if
Speaker 1: the water ice bedrock is exposed anywhere on Titan, or
Speaker 1: if it's been buried beneath organic gunk. This is because
Speaker 1: Titan's atmosphere obscures the surface at most wavelengths, limiting our
Speaker 1: ability to use traditional remote sensing techniques to study the
Speaker 1: surface composition. Dragonfly's scrutiny of Titan's surface may also yield
Speaker 1: insights about the Moon's atmosphere and the chemistry going on there,
Speaker 1: which could in turn wind up helping us understand more
Speaker 1: about ourselves. We also spoke with Sarah Horst, an assistant
Speaker 1: professor in the School of earthen Planetary Sciences at Johns
Speaker 1: Hopkins University who's also an investigator on the project. She
Speaker 1: said that chemistry and the atmosphere is interaction with the surface.
Speaker 1: Quote is important for understanding the role that atmospheres may
Speaker 1: play in the origin or evolution of life, and also
Speaker 1: help us figure out what types of molecules may constitute
Speaker 1: evidence for life when we're looking at observations far away
Speaker 1: atmospheres like those of exit planets. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Patrick J. Tiger and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain
Speaker 1: Stuff is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works.
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