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NASA invites public to send names to Titan on Dragonfly
NASA said Thursday the public can submit names through Jan. 15, 2027, to fly on a microchip aboard Dragonfly, the rotorcraft slated to launch in 2028 and arrive at Saturn's moon Titan in 2034.
NASA on Thursday invited the public to submit names to fly on a microchip aboard Dragonfly, the agency's rotorcraft mission to Saturn's moon Titan1.
The agency said names can be entered, in Spanish or English, at go.nasa.gov/dragonfly-names through 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on Jan. 15, 2027, and that participants can receive a personalized digital boarding pass1.
NASA described Dragonfly as the first science mission that will fly over the surface of another world to explore it1. The rotorcraft is being assembled at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, with launch planned for 2028 and arrival at Titan in 20341.
Titan has a dense atmosphere, rivers and lakes of liquid methane, extensive dunes and a landscape rich in organic material, NASA said1. After arrival, Dragonfly is to fly to different sites and look for signs of prebiotic chemistry, the chemistry that preceded biology1.
Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said Dragonfly will explore Titan "while we look for signs of habitability on this distant world"1.
Elizabeth Turtle of APL is the principal investigator1. NASA said APL is leading design and construction, and that Dragonfly is the fourth mission in the New Frontiers program, managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate1.
Sources
NASAOfficial source