NASA picks two finalists for space missions: a trip to a comet and one to Saturn's moon Titan

NASA picks two finalists for upcoming space missions: a trip to a comet and one to Saturn's moon Titan

NASA has announced two finalists for mnew missions under its "New Frontiers" program. New Frontier Program missions are considered medium-cost programs, unlike the huge missions, such as Curiosity or Cassini, but larger than the "Discovery Program" missions. New Horizons (to Pluto) and OSIRiSrex (a mission to return a sample of Asteroid Bennu) are examples of New Frontier Program missions. Dawn (that went to Eros and Ceres) is considered a Discovery Program mission.

The two finalist are a sample-return mission to Comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko and a helicopter-type probe to explore Titan:

The comet mission:

The first mission, spearheaded by Steve Squyres at Cornell University, is called CAESAR, or Comet Astrobiology Exploration Sample Return. It will involve sending a spacecraft to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the same comet recently explored by the European Space Agency, collecting at least 3.5 ounces of samples from the comet’s surface, and returning those samples back to Earth. The mission will collect the organic compounds which constitute the building blocks of life in order to try to understand how comets contributed to life on Earth.

The Titan mission:

The second mission, spearheaded by Elizabeth Turtle at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, is called Dragonfly. It’ll involve sending a helicopter-like robot to the surface of Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. Titan’s considered one of the best candidates for alien life. The Dragonfly mission proposes a so-called dual-quadcopter, which will hop from site to site to take a variety of measurements, including what the surface is made of, how it’s layered, and what the atmospheric conditions are.

While the science of both missions is important in their own ways, I can't help but love the Titan Mission plan, mostly because of the coolness factor involving the quadcopter.

Titan Quadcopter (artist Impression):


Here are press releases from NASA about the two finalists. The second link also gives some detail about two other missions that have been given further funding for study. One is a mission to Enceladus (the moon of Saturn that shoots compound-containing ocean water into space from geysers) and a Venus mission:

www.jpl.nasa.gov...
www.nasa.gov...

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
While the science of both missions is important in their own ways, I can't help but love the Titan Mission plan, mostly because of the coolness factor involving the quadcopter.

I like the Titan mission myself, the geology and environment there are much more fascinating, in my opinion, than the comet. Coupled with the Europa Mission I think these two are highly complimentary and can broaden our understanding of planetary formation and evolution.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
While the science of both missions is important in their own ways, I can't help but love the Titan Mission plan, mostly because of the coolness factor involving the quadcopter.

I like the Titan mission myself, the geology and environment there are much more fascinating, in my opinion, than the comet. Coupled with the Europa Mission I think these two are highly complimentary and can broaden our understanding of planetary formation and evolution.

I agree. The Titan mission is the more exciting mission between the two. An Enceladus mission would icing on the cake!

WOW!
they won a trip to Saturn's moons!!!
um thats a One way trip!

I don’t know who else thinks so, but I feel like the quadcopter sounds very prone to irreversible damage. What happens if one of its little blades break? What happens if it’s windy as crap there? What happens if there is a big giant monster and the monsters natural prey was quadcopters and that’s why there are no quadcopters left on Titan?

LOL quote no quadcopters left on Titan? lol
Funny but yea could be a wind problem or a rain problem ( liquid methane rain -snow )
As for the poor monster dudes got to eat .
O as for the poster who thinks this was a send a person umm no they were picking which company would build the tech to that will be sent .
we are a long long way from sending people anyware off earth