NASA Invites You to Join Mission to Saturn Moon

Your name could hitch a ride to one of the solar system's most intriguing worlds. NASA is inviting the public to add their names to a microchip that will fly aboard Dragonfly, an eight-rotor drone slated to launch toward Saturn's moon Titan no earlier than July 2028 and arrive in 2034, Popular Science reports. Those who sign up online will receive a digital "boarding pass," with their name, launch details, and a photo of the groundbreaking rotorcraft, per WION. The deadline is Jan. 15, 2027.

If all goes well, Dragonfly will hop across Titan's frigid, haze-wrapped surface for about three years, sampling as many as 20 to 30 sites over roughly 70 miles in search of clues to whether the largest of Saturn's moons could support life. Scientists believe extraterrestrial microbial life may live in a giant ocean of water and/or slush buried beneath a surface at around -290 degrees Fahrenheit. The mission, now being built at Johns Hopkins APL, is part of NASA's New Frontiers exploration program.