A choice by NASA this week paved the way in which for the Dragonfly drone mission to proceed to completion.
The intention is to land the car-sized drone on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, in 2034, six years after launching from Earth.
Lockheed Martin, which is a part of the Dragonfly staff led by the John Hopkins College Utilized Physics Laboratory, shared a video displaying the cool manner by which Dragonfly will attain Titan’s floor in 10 years’ time.
Titan your seatbelts!@NASA has confirmed that growth of the Dragonfly rotorcraft will proceed into remaining design, building and testing because it progresses towards its historic mission to Saturn's moon Titan, launching in July 2028.
We’re excited to assist convey Dragonfly… pic.twitter.com/v1oiElI8fx
— Lockheed Martin Area (@LMSpace) April 18, 2024
As you possibly can see, the spacecraft that transports Dragonfly from Earth will launch the drone near Titan’s floor. Instantly, the drone will hearth up its rotors to assist it obtain what needs to be a easy, managed touchdown.
In some methods, the method seems to be much like how NASA landed the Perseverance rover on Mars in 2021, a dramatic occasion that was captured by high-definition cameras. Nevertheless, the Perseverance touchdown was extra difficult because it concerned the spacecraft firing up eight small rockets to sluggish its descent within the remaining levels earlier than setting the rover down with cables.
Although Dragonfly’s touchdown definitely seems to be extra easy, you possibly can assure that mission controllers on touchdown day will nonetheless be sweating it as they anticipate affirmation of Dragonfly’s profitable landing.
Titan bears some similarities to the very early Earth and so it’s hoped that science analysis carried out by the drone will assist scientists to be taught extra about how life began on our planet. The drone gained’t be the primary plane to fly on a celestial physique aside from Earth, as that feat was achieved by NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, which traveled to Mars with Perseverance. The large success of Ingenuity’s mission, which formally ended earlier this week following 72 flights on the crimson planet, may have given a giant enhance to the staff prepping Dragonfly for Titan.
The Dragonfly mission was chosen as a part of NASA’s New Frontiers program, which incorporates the already-launched New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt, the Juno mission to Jupiter, and the OSIRIS-REx mission to the asteroid Bennu.
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