A space explorer soaks up the scenery on Titan. (Image credit: Michael Carroll)

After "re-booting" the moon and establishing a base there, followed by dispatching expeditionary crews to Mars, where should humanity go?

Next month, a first-of-its-kind gathering will blueprint an eventual crewed trek to tantalizing Titan , the largest of Saturn 's many moons. That inaugural "Humans to Titan Summit" will make the case for an astronaut outing to that far-off moon, detailing the science goals and concepts of human missions to Titan as well as necessary forerunner robotic efforts.

And there is already a robotic Titan mission on the books — NASA's nuclear-powered Dragonfly octocopter mission, which is targeted to launch in 2028. Could it help fuel a human leap?

A NASA image of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Foundational talks

"It's not too soon to begin thinking about this," said Amanda Hendrix, director of the Planetary Science Institute, headquartered in Tucson, Arizona.…