Whew! Relief for boffins as rotorcraft slated to arrive at Saturn moon in 2034
NASA has finally confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission will be heading to Titan, one of Saturn's Moons, meaning the team behind the project can finalize its design and get to work building the spacecraft.for the drone as budgets were squeezed and launch dates shifted – Dragonfly was originally slated for launch in 2026. But yesterday NASAThe total lifecycle cost of the mission is currently $3.35 billion, approximately double the proposed cost.
Additional funding has been provided for a heavy-lift launch vehicle to cut the time needed for the cruise phase to Saturn. NASA did not specify which heavy-lift launcher would be used, although the agency did use the SpaceX Falcon Heavy to launch theConfirmation of the Titan visit is a spark of optimism amid budgetary gloom at NASA. The increasing costs of theexpedition combined with funding constraints could mean cannibalization for some of the agency's other projects.
Powered by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator – like the Mars Curiosity rover – the Dragonfly dual-quadcopter drone is expected to travel hundreds of kilometers during its planned two-year exploration of Titan. According to the team,"In under an hour, Dragonfly will cover tens of miles or kilometers, farther than any planetary rover has traveled."Here's how fast a spacecraft should fly to successfully detect amino acids erupting from EnceladusTitan has long fascinated scientists. The Voyager probes imaged the moon in 1979 and 1980, but the organic haze in the atmosphere obscured the surface in visible wavelengths.
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