Rapid Fire
Dragonfly Rotorcraft Mission
- 24 Apr 2024
- 1 min read
Recently, NASA has confirmed the Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s moon, Titan.
- Dragonfly is a dual quadcopter, resembling a car-sized rotorcraft that can cover tens of kilometres on Titan in under an hour.
- Due to Titan's hazy atmosphere, Dragonfly will use a radioisotope power system, similar to the Curiosity rover on Mars.
- Dragonfly will fly to dozens of promising locations on Titan looking for prebiotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth.
- This will be the first time NASA will fly a multi-rotor vehicle for science on other planets.
- The craft will land first at the equatorial “Shangri-La” dune, exploring the region in short trips before building up to longer “leapfrog” flights of 8 kilometres.
- Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest planet in the Solar System, known for its distinctive ring system.
- Titan is Saturn’s largest moon, has an earthlike cycle of liquids flowing across its surface.
- It is the only moon with a thick atmosphere.
Read More: Dragonfly Mission
