Send Your Name to Titan: NASA Opens Sign-Ups for the Dragonfly Mission Through January 15, 2027
NASA announced on October 29 that the public can now send their names to Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Names submitted will be included on a microchip aboard the Dragonfly rotorcraft, and participants will receive a personalized digital boarding pass commemorating their place on the mission.
The public can secure a place on Dragonfly's passenger list until 11:59 p.m. EST on January 15, 2027, through NASA's Send Your Name with Dragonfly page.
"NASA's Dragonfly mission will simply blow your mind," said Nicky Fox, associate administrator of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "By flying the first-ever rotorcraft science mission, NASA will explore Saturn's largest moon, Titan, as we search for signs of habitability on a distant world that is most similar to our own. We are excited to bring humanity along for the journey of a lifetime."
The Dragonfly rotorcraft is currently being assembled at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland. Scheduled to launch in 2028, it will travel to Titan, a world with a thick atmosphere, rivers and lakes of liquid methane, sweeping dunes and a landscape rich in organic material. After arriving in 2034, Dragonfly will fly to different locations on the moon, exploring Titan's diverse environments and searching for clues about prebiotic chemistry.
Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of APL, which leads the mission for NASA, with Elizabeth Turtle of APL as principal investigator. It is the fourth mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：「蜻蜓号」Dragonfly 旋翼机在土卫六 Titan 表面上空飞行的艺术概念图。图片来源：美国国家航空航天局（NASA）／Johns Hopkins APL／Steve Gribben，公共领域。 / Artist's concept of NASA's Dragonfly rotorcraft over the surface of Titan. Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben, public domain.
