NASA's Next Solar System Explorer | NASA Science Live Episode 6

 NASA's Next Solar System Explorer | NASA Science Live Episode 6

NASA's Next Solar System Explorer

Hello and welcome to NASA Science Live.

The scenes and get to know your space agency.  I'm your host, Yogesh Bhamare.

What was your most challenging thing while you were in space?

First, it was an adaptation to take several weeks to physically adapt very different at first. And a little bit nauseous at first.

 Not what's going on gravity.

 I call it to adapt to the work and how everything works. Of course, ning on earth is very good. Very practical. And but there is a time where the two teams, the living team, teaching the incoming team.

 That sparked up a challenge we had to learn my and I we had do learn how to live apart and how to keep it alive so that would be a great adventure for everybody.

 And so that it was positive and you have to juggle all of the things that you have to be good Astro newt and a good husband and a good father and a good friend so that's the challenge of everyone in life in the end.

To know more about Human Spaceflight?  Click Here

 I o like to know the next few days how are you going to spend them?  And what are risks and what are the man nevers?

 The next few days it is like every day work the normal work, the maintenance, et cetera, but we are also packing.

 So we cannot leave any trace. You can take pictures but to not leave any trace. Same thing on board I have to leave everything perfect for the next team coming in and that's -- after that, we will bring back a few little things that are precious to us.

 And also the theory preparation. Because you will of the procedures on having to note them, of course when I got certified I had them down but we have to review them to make sure we have to change the frame mind.

 So that we can come back safely and this going to to take a few hours we will fall back on earth. Back hue stone so that can be reunited with our families.

It is almost 509 anniversary of the lunar landing. What did this historic event have on you and how did it change the way astronauts see things?

It is raorordinarynt. I didn't board when apollo 11 landed but my mother was pregnant.

 I don't he in there was some kind ever transmission fluids but of course, we all heard the story of what happened that day but my, aI was a child even images of earth from moon is it tel really gives me this quest for adventure.

 And I was thinking I would like to be like them going to be healthy I will explorer.

 And it got me.  And since I have been here it is in space when I see all of the planets the moon and the sun it is like ballet.

It becomes more familiar. And I think when we are in orbit and I think of this astronauts 50 years ago in ourrpushsittinggtingards the goal anding it going to happen again.

To know more about SpaceX: Journey to the Future: Click Here

 The dragonfly has been selected to visit Saturn's moon "Titan."

 Let's get some context about that. We're so excited to be with "V" selected dragonfly to go forward the new frontiers mission.

 It's the science that motivates us to do this exciting and difficult mission. A mission that has elements of instrumentation, and also has the ability to fly that atmosphere of titan, a world that we have, of course, looked at with can icy any analysis with the Italian space agency.

What excites me about this mission is that titan has all the key ingredient for life, liquid water and liquid methane, molecules and the energy required for life.

 We have on titan, an opportunity to observe the processes that were present on early Earth when life began to form, and possibly even conditions that may harbour life today.

 We may be able to look for biosignatures there today. What an exciting mission and of course that mission is led by dr. Elizabeth turtle at johns Hopkins applied physics laboratory.

Also by a core team that brought together a very diverse group, close to 40% female.

 But also an engineering team that brought just now, just a couple of years ago brought together the parker solar probe, a very hard challenging mission.

 We bought that together below cost and on schedule.  We're very excited to see what will happen here.

Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere. There are chemical reactions going on that cause molecules to be formed, and then they drift down around the atmosphere like a surface, almost like a light.

 It is that complicated organic synthesis that drives our interest towards titan. As Thomas said, we've been there before with a probe.

The probe was provided by the European agency. And it was a tremendous mission.

It was delivered by the Cassini spacecraft, and it was the first probe to land on titan.

 We're going to go near that location.

 It told us what the atmosphere was like.

 What properties and conditions we can expect and to a limited extent what the surface was like.

 We would not be age to do the dragonfly mission without the data provided.

it's amazing that we've been able to do that, to fly to the moon and land. Why is it such an interesting target?

In addition to that organic haze that is snowing down, titan has a methane cycle.

 Earth has a hydrologic cycle where clouds form and they condense and eventually rain.

 Titan has something similar to that, but instead of liquid water, it's liquid methane.

 And it will come together in rainstorms that carve the surface and create lakes and rivers and canyons.

 And even though it's really cold on a tie on, it has similarities to earth there are a lot of either on titan like earth, rivers, lakes.

if we were with a dragonfly on the surface, would w recognize it? Or is such an ancient Earth-like atmosphere we wouldn't know what we were looking at we would It.

 One of the great things with dragonfly, the camera that it has looked forward and downward. As the dragonfly flies over the surface it will take pictures and send them back to earth.

 We'll have the experience as if we were riding along with dragonfly looking at this alien but yet family surface that has these rivers and mountains.

 That's going to be a tremendous experience for the public. I think everybody is going to enjoy it.

 The atmosphere is thicker than earth's, and that contributes to the methane cycle and the snowing.

 Where you have the rain coming down and then collecting into lakes, like earth's great lakes filled with this liquid methane.

 It craat weather cycle, just like on earth, except without the liquid water.

 The temperature of titan is minus 300-degree Fahrenheit.  That's one key difference.

 Even sow, we have, because of those, and we'll be able to look at titan just as if we're flying over the earth.

What are we going to look at there?

first, we're going t land in sand do you know areas.  That's the safest place to land, and we'll have questions about it. 

The ultimate goal is to get to a crater. And we want to get there because we think at the crater is that the three ingredients that you need for life came in and was mixed together.

 We want dragonfly to get to that crater so we can directly investigate what happens when you mix those three things together.

 9 great thing about tie ton, it's very similar chemically to earth before we evolved.

To know more about SpaceX Starlink Internet Constellation:  Click Here

 We can't about back in time at d we can go back titan, pursue those questions, look at that chemistry, and get a glimpse of what those conditions were like that led to life on earth.

 There are a whole variety of things, and what about these samples that these instruments will be taking.

They'll spend a lot of time over the sand dunes. Similar to the sand dunes in the area in Africa.

 So what we'll do, we'll fly drag.

 Fly over oh, about, is that's why we go through the analysis what those sands made of?

 Have they drifted down?

 Have they been modified?

 Have they been blown in from long distances?

 That will be a very exciting part of the mission.

why do we call titan ocean world yes, ocean worlds are earth is an ocean world because we have an ocean on the surface.

 In other planets with the atmosphere, you don't typically see oceans at the surface.

 What we see in a world like a tie on it and similarly, they have folks below 9 surface.

 What dragonfly will do is let us know if that ocean is close enough to the surface to mix with those complex molecules falling out of the atmosphere