"Dragonfly" Titan explorer drone, NASA funds Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) Options

[Tom Tamlyn]

Interesting article in Aerospace America:

Designing Dragonfly, NASA’s Titan Explorer

A planetary lander that can fly to new sampling sites will be able to do far more surface science than a slow, trundling rover. Easy flight in the super-dense atmosphere and ultra-low gravity of Saturn’s cryogenic moon, Titan, makes it the perfect celestial body on which to test the idea. Paul Marks spoke to the team behind NASA’s Dragonfly.

https://aerospaceamerica.aiaa.org/features/...titan-explorer/

This post has been edited by Tom Tamlyn: Oct 27 2022, 01:35 PM

[Bill Harris]

Indeed interesting. And Ralph's book on the Ingenuity and Dragonfly planetary exploration helicopters is an excellent primer to understanding these, uh, "Helirovers".

--Bill

[climber]

About recent Dragonfly PDR : https://scitechdaily.com/saturns-moon-titan...ical-milestone/

[vikingmars]

About recent Dragonfly PDR : https://scitechdaily.com/saturns-moon-titan...ical-milestone/

Thanks a lot Climber for this useful link

[StargazeInWonder]

Great work by the Dragonfly team.

The article refers to the rotorcraft approach as "game-changing." Of course, there is basically one other world where long distance travel by rotorcraft would be new, so I hope we see that particular game be changed sometime this century with a Venus rotorcraft.

The next Titan northern solstice after Dragonfly's will be about 45 years from now, so I think waiting for such a mission to the northern seas, anyway, will fall upon posterity.

[climber]

Good news for la libellule !
https://www.jhuapl.edu/news/news-releases/2...ion-development

[vjkane]

The next Titan northern solstice after Dragonfly's will be about 45 years from now, so I think waiting for such a mission to the northern seas, anyway, will fall upon posterity.

Solstice, with it's tilt toward the sun and Earth, is only necessary if the probe is doing direct to Earth communications (and if you want to do some imaging). There have been proposals for lake landers that are short-lived and relay their data back through their carrier craft. They can land and carry out their measurements in darkness.

[rlorenz]

The article refers to the rotorcraft approach as "game-changing." Of course, there is basically one other world where long distance travel by rotorcraft would be new, so I hope we see that particular game be changed sometime this century with a Venus rotorcraft.

The next Titan northern solstice after Dragonfly's will be about 45 years from now, so I think waiting for such a mission to the northern seas, anyway, will fall upon posterity.

Fixed-wing (or lighter-than-air) probably makes more sense for Venus. Rotorcraft only come into their own when accessing a planetary surface, which is challenging at Venus owing to the temperatures....

And Titan northern summer solstice is in 2046, which is only 23 years from now, not 45 years.. (recall Titan's year is only 29.5 Earth years long) But I agree that is a dismayingly distant epoch...

[rlorenz]

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/dragonfly...itan-confirmed/

[john_s]

Congratulations to the Dragonfly team (including Ralph, of course)!

John

[vjkane]

Looking through the June OPAG presentation on the Dragonfly mission. The slide showing the current design suggests that the high-gain antenna design has evolved. In original designs, it could tilt to face the horizon and carried cameras for panoramic imaging. The new design appears to limit the HGA to pointing skyward and has lost the cameras.

Anyone know if Dragonfly will have one or more cameras that will be able to look out across landing sites when the craft is on the ground? Or will all imaging be from aerial perspectives looking down?

You can find the set of slides here.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[mcaplinger]

Anyone know if Dragonfly will have one or more cameras that will be able to look out across landing sites when the craft is on the ground?

Since we're building all the cameras on Dragonfly, then yes, I do know the answer. But can I say? Probably not.

You can sort of guess by looking for things that look like cameras in those slides. And there's a slide that has labels "forward science cameras" and "side science cameras" and "downward science cameras" -- maybe that answers the question.

[Explorer1]

Considering that the diagrams in that link (slide 12) have labels saying 'Camera' with bright red lines pointing towards them, I'm afraid your secret is out!
It looks like 3 downward, two side, and two forward facing science cameras, plus one line for what appear to be 2 navigation cameras.

[vjkane]

You can sort of guess by looking for things that look like cameras in those slides. And there's a slide that has labels "forward science cameras" and "side science cameras" and "downward science cameras" -- maybe that answers the question.

Unfortunately the slides with the cameras labeled wasn't posted.

[Explorer1]

Unfortunately the slides with the cameras labeled wasn't posted.

Yes it was, slide 12.