"Dragonfly" Titan explorer drone, NASA funds Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) |
"Dragonfly" Titan explorer drone, NASA funds Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) |
Dec 20 2017, 09:04 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 66 Joined: 3-August 12 Member No.: 6454 |
Is there a specific website for this Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) concept for a Titan explorer drone?
Looks to be an RTG powered machine, somewhat reminiscent of MSL Curiosity (RTG sticking out the tail end). But no camera mast, ChemCam, or sampling arm visible in the concept illustration. QUOTE Dec. 20, 2017 RELEASE 17-101 NASA Invests in Concept Development for Missions to Comet, Saturn Moon Titan Dragonfly Dragonfly is a drone-like rotorcraft that would explore the prebiotic chemistry and habitability of dozens of sites on Saturn’s moon Titan, an ocean world in our solar system. Elizabeth Turtle from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, is the lead investigator, with APL providing project management. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-inv...turn-moon-titan |
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Jun 29 2019, 10:32 PM
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Junior Member Group: Members Posts: 48 Joined: 10-September 06 Member No.: 1129 |
Really excited about this! Question to anyone who knows: What will be the resolution of the images from the surface (as compared to Huygens), and will we get any sort of global imagery/mapping?
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Jun 29 2019, 11:11 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2542 Joined: 13-September 05 Member No.: 497 |
What will be the resolution of the images from the surface (as compared to Huygens), and will we get any sort of global imagery/mapping? I'll refer everyone to http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/News-and-Resou...4_03-Lorenz.pdf -- I'm not sure how many of the details of the imaging system design I'm free to disclose, and of course these are early days. From that document: QUOTE DragonCam—Dragonfly Camera Suite (Malin Space Science Systems). A set of cameras, driven by a common electronics unit, provides for forward and downward imaging (landed and in flight), and a microscopic imager can examine surface material down to sand-grain scale. Panoramic cameras can survey sites in detail after landing... I think it's safe to say that the imagery quality will be many orders of magnitude improved over Huygens. As for "global coverage" -- Titan is larger than Mercury, so one vehicle will only see a tiny fraction of the surface. But we'll see pretty much all there is to see from one vehicle's vantage point. -------------------- Disclaimer: This post is based on public information only. Any opinions are my own.
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Jun 30 2019, 02:41 AM
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Forum Contributor Group: Members Posts: 1374 Joined: 8-February 04 From: North East Florida, USA. Member No.: 11 |
Most of the time DragonFly will be GroundFly...
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