The Science of Dragonfly

Dragonfly is a NASA mission to explore the chemistry and habitability of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. The fourth mission in the New Frontiers line, Dragonfly will send an autonomously-operated rotorcraft to visit dozens of sites on Titan, investigating the moon's surface and shallow subsurface for organic molecules and possible biosignatures. To carry out its mission, Dragonfly is equipped with a neutron spectrometer, a drill system, and a mass spectrometer, allowing scientists to make a detailed survey of Titan's chemical makeup. Dragonfly is scheduled to launch in 2026 and arrive at Titan in 2034.

Universal Production Music: "Clediss" by Thomas Stempfle and Tom Sue, "Downloading Landscapes" by Andrew Michael Britton and David Stephen Goldsmith

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Johns Hopkins APL
Dan Gallagher (USRA):
Producer
Narrator
Writer

Jonathan North (USRA):
Lead Animator

Melissa Trainer (NASA/GSFC):
Lead Writer
Scientist

Michael Lentz (USRA):
Animator

Ann Parsons (NASA/GSFC):
Scientist

Elizabeth Turtle (Johns Hopkins University/APL):
Scientist

Aaron E. Lepsch (ADNET):
Technical Support

Follow NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

[LordKingPotato]

Dragonfly sound's like an amazing concept/design. It can cover different area's doing its sicence. I'm hoping it has an excellent camera on board! 😁

[alexma]

I really enjoyed NASA new animation style lately

[mangoldm]

14 years ago was 2006. Doesn’t seem so long in retrospect.

[panhazimin.]

So proud of humans! Just imagine how great is the collaboration of scienticts, programmers, engineers and etc.

[jerichomx]

Imagine what could be done with a military budget

[bagochips]

This is so cool! Does anyone know how long this mission would last? would be a shame if this masterpiece is retired months into the mission. But again, this is a flying craft, not a rover, which is much less reliable compared to the latter. I'm just hoping dragonfly would last long enough to make oppy proud.

[GurdeepSingh-qxwh]

Good luck, Hopefully Dragonfly will soon send us some photos, I wanna see what Saturn looks like from Titan

[karlkastor]

For anyone wondering it's powered by 3 radioisotope thermoelectric generators that use the heat from nuclear decay to generate electricity. Solar cells can't be used, because the atmosphere doesn't let enough light through. Titan/Saturn are almost 10 times as far away from the sun as Earth, so by the Inverse-Square law it has only about 1% of the solar energy. The atmosphere reduces the energy reaching the surface to a tenth and the wavelengths that do reach there are too long for efficient photovoltaic.

[soppdrake]

Gobsmacked! That is some real serious gear right there!

[connordixon]

This is awesome. I’d love to get to see the launch

[range]

Martian secretary: *take it down*
Earthlings: *well I guess we wait more 14 years*

[noncalamari]

With that MMRTG on the back it's more of a firefly -- at least in the infrared.

[SparkAndSpectrum]

What's the power source for this beautiful machine?

[fuccasound]

real tech just gets to looking more and more like 1970's sci-fi, i'm thinking of Gerry Anderson's series UFO. This is very like the vehicle they used to cross the moon surface, i think it was called a

[ammarsays]

By when this Dragon Fly will start its journey to TITAN???

[JoeOutdoors]

Works for me, great work coming our way!

[Oxurus]

Thats all well and good... but does it have a camera?

[nickisnyder]

totally cool. When we first got out to Saturn...I knew Saturn was our best bet for habitation , after earth, in our solar system. From a base there we can mine the other moons & Saturn itself as well.

[Nienna_Asyare]

I didn’t know Titan had an atmosphere until today lol

[Eddie]

Questions: Who's the PI? Who's contracted to buid the drone? ... the instruments? ...the launch vehicle? When are the design reviews?