Before NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft soars on Titan, model is tested on Earth

NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft lander is designed for flight on Saturn's moon Titan. See a "half-scale Dragonfly lander model" in tests at NASA Langley.
Credit: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Music: The Genius of Birds by This Other Space / courtesy of www.epidemicsound.com

[@jonnysolaris]

Can't even believe this will fly on a MOON of another planet within a decade. Humans when they don't waste themselves on hating eachother and wars can do incredible things.

[@mateuszbugaj799]

But we have also made so many incredible things during war efforts! So many advancements came from military development during WWII and the Cold War. Give War a chance!

[@imjustcurious360]

I'm so Excited ❤ Titan 🎉

[@SuperNova-py1ec]

Me to. It’s a long time away but if they manage to achieve flight so far away it will mind blowing. Of course Ingenuity’s success on Mars is also amazing but the environment is so different. I should still be around to witness it!

[@iamdmc]

no prop guards seems like a fail... not like you can replace a damaged prop once it's already on Titan

[@153SCORN]

It needs to survive the cold....I would opt for a bigger nuclear powered craft. Titan has about the same gravity as the moon and twice the atmospheric pressure of Earth. Therefore its possible to fly a large craft with little energy. However if you have a small reactor to charge the batteries. You could fly the craft for a decade.
Also it should take less effort to slow a large craft down when it is slowed by the atmosphere and deploys parachutes.
So what if the craft weighs a ton, I say make the craft as big as possible and let the atmosphere slow it down. At lease you will have something that can fly for ages.

[@PK1312]

the ehavier it is, the harder it is to launch it into orbit and send it to titan. it takes a huge amount of energy to lift things into orbit, and we only have so much lift capability even in our biggest rockets

[@StevoF-4]

Ridiculous 😂