Work on building the unmanned aircraft to be sent to ‘Titan’, the only celestial body other than Earth with seas on its surface, is gaining speed. A performance test of the key device that will protect the airframe from atmospheric frictional heating during landing on Titanthe ‘heat shield’has succeeded. Launched from Earth in 2028, Dragonfly is scheduled to arrive at Titan in 2034 and search for traces of life.

NASA and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) announced on the 1st (local time) through official materials that performance testing of the heat shield for the unmanned aircraft ‘Dragonfly’, which will fly in Titan’s skies, had succeeded.

Dragonfly is an unmanned aircraft about the size of a compact car. It will fly through Titan by spinning eight rotors attached to a fuselage weighing 420㎏. The heat shield is designed to function as Dragonfly first arrives at Titan, descending through the atmosphere. It protects Dragonfly’s body from heat generated by friction with the air.

Sending an unmanned aircraft to an extraterrestrial body is very rare. To date, NASA’s ‘Ingenuity’, which reached Mars in 2021 and flew for three years, has been the only example. However, Ingenuity was small enough for an adult to encircle with both arms, and it had only two rotors. In that sense, Dragonfly is effectively the first full-fledged ‘unmanned aircraft for an extraterrestrial body’.

Yet Titan, where Dragonfly will operate, has an atmospheric density four times that of Earth. The team therefore ran tests assuming a scenario in which Dragonfly would pierce this thick atmosphere and descend rapidly to Titan’s surface. Simulating the intense heat generated by friction with Titan’s dense air, they exposed the heat shield to a temperature of 2,500 degrees.

The test was conducted at the solar-energy concentration facility of Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. Hundreds of mirrors gathered sunlight to produce extreme heat. NASA stated, “Even after deliberately introducing defects that could arise during manufacturing or assembly and exposing the material to high temperatures, it passed the test.” The heat shield is made from a material called ‘PICA-D’. It is produced by filling a carbon-based framework with a special plastic.

Among the many planets and moons in the solar system, there is a reason NASA is placing special emphasis on sending an unmanned aircraft to Titan. Titan is the only celestial body, other than Earth, where seas have been confirmed on the surface. Beyond Earth, Titan is unique in this respect.

Because Titan’s temperature reaches minus 179 degrees, the seas are not water. Instead, liquid methane and ethane undulate there, remaining unfrozen even at ultralow temperatures. The presence of liquid is a basic prerequisite for the emergence of life. For this reason, Titan is attracting exceptional attention in the space science community.

Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in 2028 and arrive at Titan in 2034. It will fly across multiple regions, operating cameras and sensors mounted on its body. Its ultimate mission is to search for signs of life. NASA said, “It will collect materials present on the surface, analyze their composition, and also assess geological and weather conditions.”