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Abstract:
Titan's abundant complex carbon-rich chemistry, interior ocean, and past presence of liquid water on the surface make it an ideal destination to study prebiotic chemical processes and document the habitability of an extraterrestrial environment. In addition to the complex organic synthesis occurring on Titan today, organic molecules may have interacted with liquid water at the surface in the past, increasing the potential for chemical processing to progress beyond the organic species produced in the atmosphere.Titan's low gravity (1/7th Earth's) and dense atmosphere (4x Earth's) make heavier-than-air flight highly efficient, and recent developments in autonomous flight enable a lander with aerial mobility to achieve long-range exploration. The Dragonfly New Frontiers mission is a rotorcraft lander, scheduled to launch in 2027 and arrive at Titan in the mid-2030s to sample and measure the compositions of diverse surface materials in a variety of geologic environments to understand how far organic chemistry has progressed.Dragonfly's initial landing site lies within Titan's equatorial longitudinal dunes to the south of the 80-km-diameter Selk impact crater. These dunes and interdunes provide access to multiple types of materials in close proximity, including the organic sediments in the dune sands and materials with a water-ice component. Over ~3.3 years, Dragonfly will traverse to investigate deposits associated with the impact crater where organic material may have had the opportunity to mix with liquid water. Dragonfly will also make multidisciplinary science measurements of Titan's meteorology and methane cycle, local geology and material properties, and geophysical properties of the subsurface.
