Flying A Drone On Saturn's Moon Titan | Moon Explorers | BBC Earth Science

In 2027, NASA's Dragonfly mission will explore Saturn's most Earth-like moon in our Solar System - Titan. With an astonishing orange sky and its alluring rivers of methane, Titan could be home to alien life....
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[@draco2xx]

i just want to see those beautiful methane oceans

[@maundamartin59]

BUTT.... THE SMELL?😂😂😂😂

[@maundamartin59]

That really has to be something.

[@uniquelyunique1]

Dragonfly will be beyond epic, I'm so looking forward to this. 😃

[@siddharthrv4604]

Waste of money. Nothing edible there . No O2

[@titan9259]

@@siddharthrv4604 The hypothetical azotosome (nitrogen body) could operate on liquid methane.

[@hajjdawood]

@@siddharthrv4604 There is froze H20 which means O2 can easily be generated.

[@ajithkumarvlogger7821]

Dragon 🐉 fly in the Titan

[@200fpsASH]

The Brands& sections rocket shipments is on overseas CIA comans centers!?

[@computerjantje]

I was intrigued by the first lander on Titan being so far away succesfully landing and sending back such great images. I just hope I live long enough to see this project doing its travels on Titan.

[@AliHSyed]

How old are you?

[@eugeniaamariei8626]

@@AliHSyed Why are you asking?

[@AliHSyed]

@@eugeniaamariei8626 this person wants to live long enough to see the mission, whether they will get to see it highly dependent on their current age

[@eugeniaamariei8626]

@@AliHSyed I see. I didn't see why you would ask. I thought it could have been for a different reason.

[@draco2xx]

it will take 10 years to reach titan moon

[@JianJiaHe]

It will take roughly 8 years for the drone to fly to Saturn though. But definitely worth the wait.

[@HateBear-real]

Yup, I clicked because it would have to be en route to do anything in 2027 with current engine technology.

[@tamarcusmcconnell3606]

Can’t wait for this hopefully I’m still alive in 2027 😅

[@SolarisSaber]

2027 is when they launch the mission 😅. It'll take another 7 years for dragon fly to get to Titan. So by around 2034 is when it'll be there 😬

[@dariusduesentrieb]

Cool stuff!

[@ameliashandcraftedmemes7888]

Now I wanna fly on titan

[@MrFossil367ab45gfyth]

I did a reasearch paper on Titan's Dragonfly probe ad submarine.

[@Raesgom]

Wow, it felt just like 2 minutes. I need to know more!

[@EBalagot007]

cant wait for the Dragonfly to fly soon we only have to wait until the mid 2030's to get there . Maybe NASA should send also a submarine to Titan in Kraken Mare one day after this mission is over .

[@brodebrode]

The views 😍

[@ronkirk5099]

Sounds like an awesome exploration mission. Hope I'm still around to see the results. I wonder what the fuel source is or how electrical energy is generated? That must be the reason for the 100 mile limit for the mission. Just googled it - Li-ion battery recharged between flights with a MMRTG (radioisotope thermoelectric generator).

[@peterclarke3990]

Shame it won’t be able to land somewhere near Huygens and send back some pics of its condition since it landed there back in 2005.

[@khurramkhurshed9427]

Interesting information 🤔 😊

[@saladspinner3200]

It's crazy if you think about it, a 100 years ago we were celebrating the first successful transatlantic flight. 50 years after that we put people on the moon, and another 50 years later we're talking about drones on the moons of other planets, as if it's an everyday thing.

[@wjalfi4935]

Temperature average -183 °C is special difficulties to live in Titan.

[@vulcan4d]

When our sun turns into a red giant, life may actually thrive there along with some of these other moons.

[@zenon4383]

no the period is too short

[@Snowwie88]

Since there are so many lakes and seas of liquid methane on this moon, will Dragonfly also visit the shore of one of these lakes and sample the fluid? I know Dragonfly is about to land somewhere near the equator, but most of the Methane lakes and sea are closer to the poles. Unless there are smaller bodies of liquid methane present near the equator, that would be enough to just sample the liquid.

[@TM-bi6kz]

Triton also has TRUE atomsphere. It has CLOUD.

[@gloriamagpayo8629]

Ang ganda pero ang liit pala nitong dragon fly pag nasa ere..sana ingatan ,mabuti gusto nila no to pest.

[@AA-qs4ju]

👏🏻👏🏻omg

[@user-vd8ye1ii4u]

Yeah we make a future I 2023 and 2027 on years to fly away from Titan for Robert 😉🌟😉🌟😉🌟😉

[@vforgod]

Does anyone know the name of the track that starts at 4:58?

[@animeshtiwari9649]

Probably somewhere in the Universe. Some space agency is planning to send a mission to Earth.😊 Sadly I won't live long to see😢.

[@a2frostyyt]

It’s gonna lose communication halfway through and die😂 watch, 7 years is too long

[@hajjdawood]

It can also refuel with the liquid methane which is nice

[@ronkirk5099]

You would need oxygen to use methane as a fuel and Titan has none. The energy source for the flights will use a Li-ion battery recharged with a radioisotope thermoelectric generator between flights.

[@hajjdawood]

@@ronkirk5099 Given Ice water rocks are on the surface (or suspected? not sure) maybe melt it down to get water then strip the oxygen from it.

[@softladification]

There was no mention of how long the trip to Titan will take nor when we can expect the first images if all goes well. Disappointing given it's a BBC production.

[@harshpal5848]

typical lady Scholar

[@ronkirk5099]

Eight year flight to reach Titan after launch.

[@JulAlxAU]

Does anyone know the music at 00:19?

[@Scilence23]

please tell me the plan is to land next to the lakes! if not cut the funding. they can search for life next to the alien lakes

[@ChromeMeelz]

👌

[@Manneerik13373]

Go humanity! 🎉

[@michaelanderson3096]

The natural gas moon in the solar system - How is natural gas produced?

[@dennisud]

Would Silicon based life also thrive in this environment?

[@HateBear-real]

No one knows, of course, but I thought silicon based life would work better in extremely hot climates, so Silicoids or something from MOO2 would need what we would see as a lava planet. I could be wrong. But any native Titan life would see us as lava beings, if they could actually see. I guess the odds of microbes in all the subsurface water oceans is actually about 50/50 with what we know now. But what we think we know could wind up just being a mad model too, so no one really knows.

[@shahidnawaz3775]

😊

[@Continentalmunkey88]

Chlorophyll limitation, state pause

[@fella9293]

Thanos😂

[@floxy709]

how will the craft be sterilized in case there's life already? bc we are doing that, right?

[@Greenpoloboy3]

I'm from the future. Sadly no life was found.

[@SomeRandom6uy]

is Thanos a Titan ? cmiiw

[@diocletian607]

If humanity is successful ultimately a millenia from now this moon will be a primary home for humanity. Unless Earth can somehow be pulled away from the Suns red giant radius, our new home will inetivably be here.

[@huldu]

I think you forgot about Mars. Also there are a lot of other very interesting moons and possible places that we just don't know about today. I doubt we humans will exist to see the sun ending Earth. I'd be shocked if within the next 500-1000 years we haven't been able to create very advanced androids to take over everything we do and carry on the torch for mankind in their own way. In that way we're Gods.

[@ReverieMotionCanned]

I think you massively overestimate how long a millennium is

[@hajjdawood]

@@hulduars is useless because it offers no real protection from the suns vicious radiation. Everything will kill you on mars. If we can somehow survive the journey titan is much more ideal: has a real atmosphere, tons of hydrocarbons that we can immediately use to produce power, heat, oxygen, and water. Has nitrogen, methane, and co2 in the atmosphere which plants love, and is protected by Saturn magnetosphere Also the arrogance is staggering we are not nor will ever be gods. Every human who declares such is quickly humbled

[@tauceti8060]

We also need an aircraft for the gas giants?

[@HateBear-real]

Dropping a giant vacuum-sealed metal aircraft carrier that sifts gasses into the upper atmosphere that then sends up smallish probe tankers to orbit to sell fusion fuel in the future would be insanely awesome. No one is ready to do that now though. Strictly speaking, you don't "need" anything in particular, but having some fins or wings or displacement would greatly benefit an exploration mission. The old probes back in the 70s (?) used balloons to get weather data. They sank by design and were basically expended after one use.

[@michaelanderson3096]

COMBUSTION ENGINES WILL LAST FOREVER ON TITAN

[@danielwalker6653]

Nah. No Oxygen on Titan. Lots of potential internal combustion fuels but no way to burn it.

[@hajjdawood]

@@danielwalker6653 H2O exists on titan, therefore oxygen can be extracted. Not only that but Methylomirabilis oxyfera consume methane and nitrogen to produce oxygen.

[@hajjdawood]

@@danielwalker6653 Also Carbon Monoxide can be converted to Oxygen

[@nicholashylton6857]

​@@hajjdawoodWater exists on Titan, but it's literally rock hard. The water ice is hard as granite, so you'd have to heat it up to extract the O2. That's very energy intensive. It would be useful for making rocket fuel to get off Titan, but not for some kind of internal combustion engine - like a car.

[@hajjdawood]

@@nicholashylton6857 Well if there is one thing that Titan has a lot of, its energy lol.

[@antiochiaadtaurum3786]

It rains farts on Titan

[@kentslocum]

It cracks me up that so many scientists are still searching for the origins of life, when the answer has been clearly known for all of human history. I would have no problem with scientists exploring other parts of the solar system just for the fun of it, or to learn as much as possible. But the fact that they specifically say the whole point of each mission is to search for signs of life--well, they're going to be disappointed.

[@AntoniusReginaldus]

Well, if this is supposed to be the next best hope for human habitation, I would be curious to see how far away that possibility is too. Supposedly a day will come when human beings need to go somewhere else, assuming they are still around and have not perished for any reason before Earth becomes less and less hospitable to life, as it is expected to become. Sooner or later, knowledge of places like this will become more of a necessity than an amusement park ride or a science geek's paradise.

[@kentslocum]

@@AntoniusReginaldus True. That's a perfectly reasonable purpose for space exploration.

[@HateBear-real]

What are you talking about? The goal currently is to learn as much as possible. And no, nothing has been known from the dawn of time.

[@fargoth391]

what a dumb comment. you look like a typical frat boy though so it's not unexpected for you to say something so fucking stupid.

[@SojournerDidimus]

1:24 "we think there's a period in earth's history when life originated" And there's the presupposition that makes this an endeavor of faith rather than science.

[@danielcarter491]

I never knew that Drew Barrymore had this super smart sister. Or that she had a love child with Wynona Rider? Well, it's fun to listen to someone who's so automated when they speak. Cool project too.

[@enthralz4214]

It's fascinating that we keep on searching for life on other planets when we are causing the 6th extinction here on earth.

[@HateBear-real]

[Presses X to DOUBT extra hard]

[@SkywatcherAnomalous89]

Cool but let’s be honest we have a lot more answers not being showed to the public.

[@SkywatcherAnomalous89]

@@PBFoote-mo2zr only if you new what’s just in the skies above us.

[@Haznoo]

@@SkywatcherAnomalous89 if only you knew how to spell knew

[@SkywatcherAnomalous89]

@@Haznoo only if I was bothered by some nerd online 😄😄😄

[@user-hz9oo4dy8u]

blind dudes using god sight coverings cash register delivery registration candace marie hughes planet houses ice cubes homes skyinterstates rings earthatmosphere air conditionervehicles with keys galaxyclubs freeways highways solarsystem card. on. voice auto audio on.

[@SchizoPost]

Nice post, brother.

[@HateBear-real]

@@SchizoPost You're doing Gods' work, Anon.

[@sdfghgtrew]

​@@HateBear-realHey Anon!

[@BigDipper79]

Who calls Triple A if something goes wrong? I see diversity has overtaken actual wits.

[@apollo_kingg]

It’s all cap

[@joedizzelfoerizle]

A woman will be responsible for driving it..? 😐

[@Spencerlayne]

All these trips and satellites. And there's never any actual footage.