T-minus 2 years: How BYU is helping NASA prep for their 2028 Dragonfly mission

NASA’s Dragonfly mission will send a robotic spacecraft to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, where scientists hope to uncover clues about the building blocks of life. The mission is scheduled to launch in July 2028 and, with two short years to go, a group of BYU researchers has been tapped by NASA to understand the landscape and interpret what they will find.

Titan is the most Earth-like world currently known. It has a dense atmosphere, stable surface liquids and a weather cycle. Furthermore, it is covered in complex carbon-based molecules, making it a prime place for scientists to study prebiotic chemistry and extraterrestrial habitability.

“Titan is a very Earth-like landscape, but in a totally foreign environment,” said Jani Radebaugh, BYU Geology professor and member of the NASA science team. “Methane is the liquid that forms rain and flows across the surface, but the landscapes are just like we see here on Earth – rivers, lakes, mountains and dunes.”

NASA is building a new-generation rotorcraft for the mission to Titan, one that can fly, hover, land, recharge, collect, process, send and receive data in otherworldly conditions — even at -300° Fahrenheit. About the size of a small car, Dragonfly is built to work for years, autonomously relocating and exploring while Earth-based scientists guide the asynchronous operations.

Radebaugh and her students are studying dune landscapes on Earth as analogues to what Dragonfly may encounter on Titan. Their work will help NASA understand where to search for evidence of life, land the drone and collect data.

In the towering dunes of Namibia, BYU undergraduate student Logan Peatross worked with Radebaugh and other NASA team members to study the geometrical similarities between the African dunes and Titan’s dunes. Both are tall, linear ridges that stretch for hundreds of kilometers.

“I had the opportunity to fly drones and make 3D models of the area by taking tons of pictures and stitching them together,” Peatross said. “In these models, we see the different gravels in the dunes and between the dunes [a better repository of life], as well as the ripple textures across the dunes, which categorize what sort of wind currents are in the area.”

In the Great Kobuk Sand Dunes of Alaska, BYU master’s student Emma Gosselin used ground-penetrating radar to identify deep pockets of water beneath the ice-covered dunes. Perhaps such areas could harbor signs of life, hinting at Titan’s potential habitability even in extreme cold.

Gosselin reflected on the beauty of the dunes as “pristine and perfect” and the unique opportunity to be involved in the science.

“There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t realize how lucky I was to be there,” Gosselin said. “I learned a lot as a scientist, and I’m grateful for the wonderful faculty at BYU and how willing they are and ready to include students in their research.”

Dragonfly will be operating for a long time, said Radebaugh. And she predicts BYU students will always be involved — right at the forefront of scientific exploration.

“We try to provide a strong field education for our students in BYU geology; we get them outside, and we get them working hard and doing research projects — even as undergraduates,” Radebaugh said. “That’s very unique for undergrads, so BYU students always make a strong impression wherever I bring them.”