Ephemeris: 10/20/2026 – Dragonfly to land on Saturn’s moon Titan in 2034
This is Ephemeris for Tuesday, October 20th. Today the Sun will be up for 10 hours and 44 minutes, setting at 6:49, and it will rise tomorrow at 8:06. The Moon, 2 days past first quarter, will set at 2:48 tomorrow morning.
In June 2028, less than two years away NASA is expected to launch a flying spacecraft to Saturn’s moon Titan. It’s called Dragonfly. It is in essence a quadcopter drone to fly in its thick atmosphere. The journey will take about 6 and a half years to get to Saturn in November 2034. It will use one gravity assist from the Earth, about three years after launch, skimming the Earth’s surface at 472½ kilometers, flying briefly at the height of SpaceX’s Starlink satellites. It is designed with two rotors per corner. It is powered by a plutonium radioactive thermal generator which will of charge a lithium-ion battery. This will give it about half an hour of flight time and 10 mile range for each charge, as it flies over and studies the surface of this icy moon.
The astronomical event times given in this blog are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan (Lat 44.7° N, Long 85.7° W; EDT, UT – 4 hours) unless stated otherwise. Times will be different for other locations.
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