We found where the Dragonfly will land on Titan

In 2034

Saturn’s Titan is one of the strangest worlds in our solar system, with a murky atmosphere that hides shallow lakes of liquid hydrocarbons, which is why NASA is preparing to send a robotic flying craft there in 2027. The lander that will carry Dragonfly craft on the surface of Titan, will arrive there in 2034 and is expected to land on the Shangri-la Dune, near Selk Crater.

Now, a new survey maps six different pieces of the region, identifying features such as sand dunes and frozen ground, providing the foundation for models and hypotheses that Dragonfly will be able to test when it lands.

Dragonfly will land at the equator, in a dry region of Titan, an icy hydrocarbon world with a thick atmosphere. It rains liquid methane sometimes but it’s more like an Earth desert where you find sand dunes, some small mountains and craters. We carefully investigate the landing area, structure and surface.

The scientists extracted the data from Cassini images, which have a resolution of just 300 meters per pixel. But combining data from the Huygens lander, which landed south of the new target, allowed them to estimate the height and shape of the Selk crater. More observations are definitely needed until 2034.

The Dragonfly is a propeller-driven craft that will function like drones. It weighs 450 kg and has eight propellers, each of which is one meter in diameter. In Titan’s atmosphere with weak winds and low gravity, Dragonfly will fly at a maximum speed of 36 kilometers per hour, exploring the area around the landing site.

The research was published in the Planetary Science Journal .