NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
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NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
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Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#2Dragonfly is a super exciting mission. Between it and the other New Frontiers finalist, CAESAR, it makes sense that Dragonfly would win because the ESA just announced their own comet exploration mission (the Comet Interceptor, which is 3 spacecraft that will loiter together at L2 until an interesting comet or Oumuamua-like interstellar object wanders into the inner solar system).
Anyway, Dragonfly: RTG-powered quadcopter to fly around Titan's low gravity and dense atmosphere. Over its 2.5-year primary mission, Dragonfly should cover ~180 kilometers of territory.
Self-promotion: If you're into space exploration, check out our weekly space industry newsletter called The Orbital Index (https://orbitalindex.com). We're going to cover this in depth in next week's issue.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#3I'll be 43 when this craft arrives there. Damn.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#4A flying drone is a really solid idea for a Titan lander for a couple reasons:
* The surface atmosphere density is higher than Earth's (1.5 atm)
* Gravitational force is much lower (0.15g)
* We don't know a lot about the surface composition or topography, so wheels and motors represent a challenge
* Visibility may be poor, making visual navigation tricky (though that's also a problem for a flying vehicle I suppose)
I've heard people ask about "why a nuclear power source?" Saturn is 10x as far from the sun as Earth, so sunlight is about 1/100th as bright. In addition, Titan's atmosphere blocks most of that. There really isn't any other realistic option.
I hope it works and they take videos.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#5It's interesting that there is no existing (or planned) launch vehicle that could perform a direct injection for this mission. Getting to Saturn is really, really hard, and without multiple gravity assists from the inner solar system it would be simply impossible.
Too bad it results in an 11 year transit time though! Flying direct would save almost 8 years of that...
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#6It is nice that multiple public sector agencies worldwide are doing space travel now, with the private sector close behind.
Relying solely on NASA and the political funding machinations of the White House and Congress would put our understanding of the planets very far behind.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#7A flying drone is a really solid idea for a Titan lander for a couple reasons: * The surface atmosphere density is higher than Earth's (1.5 atm) * Gravitational force is much lower (0.15g) * We don't know a lot about the surface composition or topography, so wheels and motors represent a challenge * Visibility may be poor, making visual navigation tricky (though that's also a problem for a flying vehicle I suppose) I…
The data rate from the surface of titan is abysmal. Even with a relay, we won't get much video, but man, I hope we get some.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#8I love this mission. From a science point of view it’s probably good to send similar and well tested rovers to Mars. But to me it gets boring.
I think NASA used to get a lot of fascination from doing the seemingly impossible like flying to the moon. So I think a mission like this will be fascinating for a lot of people. Also it may spawn off a lot of technology. I hope for a submarine mission to Europa.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#9I can't believe it's been that long since Huygens was sent to Titan. I remember listening to some radio show (NPR?) that was broadcasting the touchdown live.
Also, it's interesting that since they can't study Titan very well visually (you can't point a telescope at it and map the surface like you can with Mars) they're planning on sending a rover that can cover far more distance since they have less idea what will be "interesting" beforehand.
Re: NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to Titan
#10A flying drone is a really solid idea for a Titan lander for a couple reasons: * The surface atmosphere density is higher than Earth's (1.5 atm) * Gravitational force is much lower (0.15g) * We don't know a lot about the surface composition or topography, so wheels and motors represent a challenge * Visibility may be poor, making visual navigation tricky (though that's also a problem for a flying vehicle I suppose) I…
The data rate from the surface of titan is abysmal. Even with a relay, we won't get much video, but man, I hope we get some.
No 4K flyovers for Instagram?