NASA committed to a ground-breaking effort to use a quadcopter drone to investigate Saturn's largest moon by formally approving the robotic Dragonfly mission for full development.
The results of Dragonfly's confirmation examination were made public by agency representatives last week.
NASA confirmed the Dragonfly project, stating that it will launch in July 2028 and cost $3.35 billion in total over its lifetime.
Only the second flying drone to explore a different planet, Dragonfly will be the first mobile robot explorer to set foot on a world other than the Moon and Mars.
Titan's extremely cold temperatures, which hover around minus 290°F (minus 179°C), cause aqueous ice to behave like bedrock.
Even with all of those missions combined, Dragonfly's lifespan cost of $3.35 billion will be far higher.
The $850 million (or $1 billion, inflation-adjusted) mission cap was in place when NASA selected Dragonfly in 2019.
Due to financial limitations that affected the amount of money NASA could spend on the Dragonfly project each fiscal year, the agency has had to reschedule the mission many times since 2019.
While the two most recent New Frontiers missions cost between $1 billion and $1.5 billion, NASA's upcoming flagship planetary scientific probe, Europa Clipper, is expected to cost over $5 billion.
Titan's atmosphere is four times thicker at its surface than Earth's. While reaching the ground will take far longer than a lander entering Earth's or Mars' atmosphere, the increased air density should make for fantastic flying conditions.