spacetoday.net: Comet and Titan spacecraft finalists for next New Frontiers mission

Comet and Titan spacecraft finalists for next New Frontiers mission

Posted: Sun, Dec 24, 2017, 4:02 PM ET (2102 GMT)
CAESAR spacecraft illustration (NASA)

NASA announced Wednesday it has picked missions to Titan and a comet as finalists for its next New Frontier mission. One proposed mission, Comet Astrobiology Exploration SAmple Return (CAESAR), would visit the same comet studied by ESA's Rosetta mission, collecting samples for return to Earth. Dragonfly would land a rotorcraft on Titan that will be able to travel tens to hundreds of kilometers to study various regions. NASA selected two other proposals, to Enceladus and Venus, for additional technology studies. NASA will pick either CAESAR or Dragonfly in 2019 for development.