The maximum easy position to fly with this solar formula is not here on Mother Earth, but on saturn’s moon Titan, a mysterious world hidden through a methane environment 4 times denser than Earth’s.Observers see the opportunity in this dense environment. This will allow them to explore a much larger dominance on Titan than the rovers have done on Mars.The team created the Dragonfly mission, scheduled for launch in 2026, to investigate Titan with tools not carried through wheels still through propellers.
“The concept of flying on another planet is exciting,” says Elizabeth “Zibi” Turtle, lead researcher at the Dragonfly project and planetologist at Johns Hopkins’ Applied Physics Laboratory (APL).”We’ve noticed in mars exploration how mobility improves clinical feedback and what can be reported by going from one position to another,” he says.But on Titan, we can take advantage of the environment’s merit to fly from one position to another rather than driving.”
Dragonfly, which is expected to weigh around 1,200 pounds, will have the length of the largest rovers on Mars.Instead of resting on wheels, you’ll land on skates like a helicopter.Describing it as a “mobile landing module,” Dragonfly designers rely on 8 rotors in a quadcopter design.At the end of its 4 arms, two 53-inch counter-rotating rotors, one on top of the other, will supply support.
Flying will give Dragonfly an unmatched mobility point through any lander or rover ever built.The current range champion from global is the Opportunity rover, which advances to an average of two miles in line with the land year.few minutes.
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Writer and photographer Tim Wright is an Air contributor