NASA’s Dragonfly Tunnel Visions
Artist’s impression of the Dragonfly rotorcraft lander on the surface of Titan, Saturn’s largest moon and a major target in NASA’s quest to assess habitability and search for potential signs of life beyond Earth on worlds across the solar system.
NASA/Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben
With its dense atmosphere and low gravity, Saturn’s moon Titan is a great place to fly.
But well before NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft lander soars through Titan’s skies, researchers on Earth – led by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland – are making sure their designs and models for the nuclear-powered, car-sized drone will work in a truly unique environment.
Dragonfly, NASA’s only mission to the surface of another ocean world, is designed to investigate the complex chemistry that is the precursor to life. The vehicle, which APL will build and operate, will be equipped with cameras, sensors and samplers to examine swaths of Titan known to contain organic materials that may, at some point in Titan’s complex history, have come in contact with liquid water beneath the organic-rich, icy surface.