NASA’s Dragonfly to scout Titan with a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft
TL;DR Summary
NASA plans to launch Dragonfly, a car-sized eight-rotor rotorcraft powered by a plutonium-238 RTG, to hop between sites on Saturn’s moon Titan. The drone will study Titan’s methane seas, organic-rich dunes, and prebiotic chemistry, exploring how carbon chemistry progresses in environments unlike Earth. Dragonfly could travel up to ~175 km during its nominal mission, arriving at Titan no earlier than 2028 and reaching the world by 2034, using heat from its power source to keep instruments warm in Titan’s frigid environment.
- Later this decade NASA plans to launch Dragonfly, a car-sized nuclear-powered drone that will fly from site to site across Saturn's moon Titan - the only world besides Earth with rivers, lakes and rain, though there the rain is liquid methane Space Daily
- Meet Dragonfly: NASA’s revolutionary flying robot searching for life on Saturn’s moon Titan WFTV
- NASA Embraces Challenges Of Saturn Moon Mission Aviation Week
- NASA Livestreams Dragonfly Assembly Today as the Titan Rotorcraft Takes Shape Glitchwire
- Construction of NASA’s Dragonfly spacecraft is underway at Johns Hopkins University WYPR
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