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Credit: NASADragonfly would explore the habitability of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
And now it’s down to two: Dragonfly and CAESAR.
Those are the finalists out to win the grand prize offered by NASA's coveted New Frontiers program—a billion dollar space shot for a single robotic mission.
The agency made the announcement Wednesday at its Washington, D.C. headquarters.
Dragonfly and CAESAR beat out ten other science teams for a chance to launch.
“This is a very tough competition,” says Jim Green, NASA’s Planetary Science Division director. “And these are very exciting missions.”
Dragonfly—a visual mashup of a drone and helicopter—would land on Titan, a mysterious moon of Saturn that might harbor life.
“Titan is a unique ocean world,” says Elizabeth Turtle, Dragonfly’s lead investigator, “with lakes and rivers of liquid methane flowing across its surface.”
That, along with its thick atmosphere and rich organic chemistry, suggests Titan “has the ingredients for life,” she says.
Although no one is certain, primitive microbes--or something more—might flourish within the world's dark methane seas.
After touchdown, the Dragonfly vehicle (a “rotorcraft") will fly around Titan, land in locations hundreds of miles apart, and sample the surface.
Detailed measurements of those samples, says Turtle, could answer “fundamental unknowns” about Titan.
Credit: NASAArtist's conception of the CAESAR spacecraft.
CAESAR, looking a bit like a ceiling fan with only two spokes, would land on Churyumov-Gerasimenko, an ancient comet with “a real jawbreaker of a name,” says Steve Squyres, the project’s lead investigator.
Comets, many scientists say, delivered water and organic molecules to a primordial Earth, perhaps igniting life here.
Yet the icy bodies remain an enigma to astronomers, ranking “among the most poorly understood” of celestial objects, Squyres says.
After landing, CAESAR will scoop up a sample from the comet’s nucleus, then bring it back to Earth.
By studying the 100 gram sample (two-tenths of a pound), scientists may obtain clues on how the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.
“It’s going to produce groundbreaking science for decades to come,” says Squyres.
For Dragonfly and CAESAR, competition continues. Ultimately, NASA picks only one project.
Both teams will spend 2018—and $4 million each—finalizing their proposals, due for review in January 2019. NASA chooses a winner the following July.
Mission costs are capped at $850 million; launch costs run about $150 million.
Like all of NASA’s New Frontiers projects, both Dragonfly and CAESAR are long haul. A liftoff won’t happen until 2025. If Dragonfly is picked, it won’t arrive at Titan until 2034. If CAESAR wins, its comet sample won’t get back to Earth until 2038.
And that’s if everything goes just right.
Says Squyres: “Patience is a virtue in this business.”
Credit: NASACAESAR comet sample returning to Earth, parachute deployed.
Credit: NASADragonfly would explore the habitability of Titan, Saturn's largest moon.
And now it’s down to two: Dragonfly and CAESAR.
Those are the finalists out to win the grand prize offered by NASA's coveted New Frontiers program—a billion dollar space shot for a single robotic mission.
The agency made the announcement Wednesday at its Washington, D.C. headquarters.
Dragonfly and CAESAR beat out ten other science teams for a chance to launch.
“This is a very tough competition,” says Jim Green, NASA’s Planetary Science Division director. “And these are very exciting missions.”
Dragonfly—a visual mashup of a drone and helicopter—would land on Titan, a mysterious moon of Saturn that might harbor life.
“Titan is a unique ocean world,” says Elizabeth Turtle, Dragonfly’s lead investigator, “with lakes and rivers of liquid methane flowing across its surface.”
That, along with its thick atmosphere and rich organic chemistry, suggests Titan “has the ingredients for life,” she says.
Although no one is certain, primitive microbes--or something more—might flourish within the world's dark methane seas.
After touchdown, the Dragonfly vehicle (a “rotorcraft") will fly around Titan, land in locations hundreds of miles apart, and sample the surface.
Detailed measurements of those samples, says Turtle, could answer “fundamental unknowns” about Titan.
Credit: NASAArtist's conception of the CAESAR spacecraft.
CAESAR, looking a bit like a ceiling fan with only two spokes, would land on Churyumov-Gerasimenko, an ancient comet with “a real jawbreaker of a name,” says Steve Squyres, the project’s lead investigator.
Comets, many scientists say, delivered water and organic molecules to a primordial Earth, perhaps igniting life here.
Yet the icy bodies remain an enigma to astronomers, ranking “among the most poorly understood” of celestial objects, Squyres says.
After landing, CAESAR will scoop up a sample from the comet’s nucleus, then bring it back to Earth.
By studying the 100 gram sample (two-tenths of a pound), scientists may obtain clues on how the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago.
“It’s going to produce groundbreaking science for decades to come,” says Squyres.
For Dragonfly and CAESAR, competition continues. Ultimately, NASA picks only one project.
Both teams will spend 2018—and $4 million each—finalizing their proposals, due for review in January 2019. NASA chooses a winner the following July.
Mission costs are capped at $850 million; launch costs run about $150 million.
Like all of NASA’s New Frontiers projects, both Dragonfly and CAESAR are long haul. A liftoff won’t happen until 2025. If Dragonfly is picked, it won’t arrive at Titan until 2034. If CAESAR wins, its comet sample won’t get back to Earth until 2038.
And that’s if everything goes just right.
Says Squyres: “Patience is a virtue in this business.”
Credit: NASACAESAR comet sample returning to Earth, parachute deployed.
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