Selection and Characteristics of the Dragonfly Landing Site near Selk Crater, Titan

Ralph D. Lorenz (1) , Shannon M. Mackenzie (1) , Catherine D. Neish (2, 3) , Alice Le Gall (4) , Elizabeth P. Turtle (1) , Jason W. Barnes (5) , Melissa G. Trainer (6) , Alyssa Werynski (2) , Joshua Hedgepeth (2) , Erich Karkoschka (7)

1 APL - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory [Laurel, MD]
2 Department of Earth Sciences [London, ON]
3 PSI - Planetary Science Institute [Tucson]
4 PLANETO - LATMOS
5 Department of Physics [Moscow,USA]
6 GSFC - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
7 LPL - Lunar and Planetary Laboratory [Tucson]

The factors contributing to the initial selection of a dune site near the Selk impact structure on Titan as the first landing site for the Dragonfly mission are described. These include arrival geometry and aerodynamic/ aerothermodynamic considerations, illumination, and Earth visibility, as well as the likely presence of exposed deposits of water-rich material, potentially including materials where molten ice has interacted with organics. Cassini observations of Selk are summarized and interpreted: near-infrared reflectance and microwave emission data indicate water-rich materials in and around the crater. Radar topography data shows the rim of Selk to have slopes on multi-km scales reaching only ∼2°degrees, an order of magnitude shallower than early photoclinometric estimates.

Domains: Sciences of the Universe [physics]

Ralph D. Lorenz, Shannon M. Mackenzie, Catherine D. Neish, Alice Le Gall, Elizabeth P. Turtle, et al.. Selection and Characteristics of the Dragonfly Landing Site near Selk Crater, Titan. The Planetary Science Journal, 2021, 2 (1), pp.24. ⟨10.3847/PSJ/abd08f⟩. ⟨insu-03135984⟩