NASA\u2019s Dragonfly mission has cleared several key design, development and testing milestones and remains on track toward launch in July 2028.<\/p>\n
Dragonfly, a car-sized, nuclear-powered rotorcraft being designed and built for NASA at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will explore Saturn\u2019s moon Titan. Following launch and a six-year journey to Titan, the Dragonfly rotorcraft will spend over three years investigating multiple landing sites across the moon\u2019s diverse surface. Flying a comprehensive science package, Dragonfly seeks to understand Titan habitability and the building blocks of life as we know it.<\/p>\n
Hardware is being built and software developed, tests are being completed and analyses verified as the team progresses through its development schedule.<\/p>\n
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\nJohns Hopkins APL engineers Max Wolbeck and Daniel Peterson install and adjust the rotors on the full-scale test model representing half of the Dragonfly lander in the Transonic Dynamics Tunnel facility at NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center. During a monthlong testing campaign, the team was able to evaluate rotor system performance in Titan-like conditions.
\nNASA<\/p>\n
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\nMembers of the Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer team inspect their device, part of the Dragonfly Mass Spectrmeter (DraMS) instrument package, at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center.
\nNASA<\/p>\n
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