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Dragonfly: Investigating the Surface Composition of TitanDragonfly is a rotorcraft lander mission, selected as a finalist in NASA's New Frontiers Program, that is designed to sample materials and determine the surface composition in different geologic settings on Titan. This revolutionary mission concept would explore diverse locations to characterize the habitability of Titan's environment, to investigate how far prebiotic chemistry has progressed, and to search for chemical signatures that could be indicative of water-based and/or hydrocarbon-based life. Here we describe Dragonfly's capabilities to determine the composition of a variety of surface units on Titan, from elemental components to complex organic molecules. The compositional investigation ncludes characterization of local surface environments and finely sampled materials. The Dragonfly flexible sampling approach can robustly accommodate materials from Titan's most intriguing surface environments.
Document ID
20180003047
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Trainer, M. G.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Brinckerhoff, W. B.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Freissinet, C.
(Laboratoire Atmospheres, Milieux, Observations Spatiales LATMOS Guyancourt, France)
Lawrence, D. J.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Laurel, MD, United States)
Peplowski, P. N.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Laurel, MD, United States)
Parsons, A. M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Zacny, K.
(Honeybee Robotics Pasadena, CA, United States)
Turtle, E. P.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Laurel, MD, United States)
Barnes, J. W.
(Idaho Univ. Moscow, ID, United States)
Lorenz, R. D.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Laurel, MD, United States)
Horst, S. M.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Baltimore, MD, United States)
Soderblom, J. M.
(Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT) Cambridge, MA, United States)
Stickle, A. M.
(Johns Hopkins Univ. Laurel, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
May 25, 2018
Publication Date
March 19, 2018
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN53846
Meeting Information
Meeting: Lunar andPlanetary Science Conference
Location: The Woodlands, TX
Country: United States
Start Date: March 19, 2018
End Date: March 23, 2018
Sponsors: Lunar and Planetary Inst., Universities Space Research Association, NASA Headquarters
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: GSFC-690
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Use by or on behalf of the US Gov. Permitted.
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