Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander mission– part of NASAs New Frontiers Program– developed to take advantage of Titans environment to sample materials and determine surface area composition in different geologic settings. Dragonfly is being designed and built under the direction of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which handles the objective for NASA. Dragonfly is the 4th objective in NASAs New Frontiers Program, managed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate.
Dragonfly is a rotorcraft lander objective– part of NASAs New Frontiers Program– developed to benefit from Titans environment to sample materials and determine surface area structure in various geologic settings. This advanced objective idea includes the capability to explore diverse locations to characterize the habitability of Titans environment, to investigate how far prebiotic chemistry has advanced, and even to look for chemical signatures that could indicate hydrocarbon-based and/or water-based life. Credit: Johns Hopkins APL
NASAs Dragonfly objective to Titan advances to last design stage in 2024, with a re-planned launch date in 2028. The objective aims to explore Titan using a rotorcraft-lander and includes partnerships with multiple agencies.
NASAs Dragonfly mission has actually been authorized to continue with deal with final objective design and fabrication– referred to as Phase C– during fiscal year (FY) 2024. The company is holding off formal verification of the mission (including its total expense and schedule) until mid-2024, following the release of the FY 2025 Presidents Budget Request.
Earlier this year, Dragonfly– a mission to send out a rotorcraft to explore Saturns moon Titan– passed all the success requirements of its Preliminary Design Review. The Dragonfly team conducted a re-plan of the mission based on expected funding offered in FY 2024 and approximate a revised launch readiness date of July 2028. The Agency will officially assess the missions launch readiness date in mid-2024 at the Agency Program Management Council.
” The Dragonfly group has actually successfully overcome a number of programmatic and technical challenges in this bold undertaking to gather brand-new science on Titan,” said Nicola Fox, associate administrator of NASAs Science Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters in Washington. “I am proud of this group and their capability to keep all aspects of the mission approaching verification.”
Dragonfly takes a novel approach to planetary expedition, for the very first time using a rotorcraft-lander to take a trip in between and sample diverse websites on Titan. Dragonflys objective is to characterize the habitability of the moons environment, investigate the progression of prebiotic chemistry in an environment where carbon-rich product and liquid water might have blended for a prolonged period, and even look for chemical indicators of whether hydrocarbon-based or water-based life when existed on Titan.
About Dragonfly
Dragonfly is being developed and developed under the instructions of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, which handles the objective for NASA. The group consists of crucial partners at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland; Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado; Sikorsky, a Lockheed Martin company; NASAs Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, California; NASAs Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia; Penn State University in State College, Pennsylvania; Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego, California; Honeybee Robotics in Pasadena, California; NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California; CNES (Centre National dEtudes Spatiales), the French space company, in Paris, France; DLR (German Aerospace Center) in Cologne, Germany; and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in Tokyo, Japan. Dragonfly is the 4th mission in NASAs New Frontiers Program, managed by NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for the Science Mission Directorate.