Falcon Heavy | Dragonfly

mission

Name

Dragonfly

Type

Planetary Science

Target orbit

Heliocentric N/A (Helio-N/A)

Dragonfly is NASA's 4th New Frontiers program mission that will send a robotic rotorcraft to fly within the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan to sample materials and determine surface composition in different geologic settings, advancing humanity's search for the building blocks of life. The craft is a large quadcopter with double rotors with mass of about 875 kg, featuring rotors of 1.35 m in diameter. It can fly through several kilometers within an hour and will perform 1 flight per Titan day (~16 Earth days). During the planned 3.3-year mission, Dragonfly is expected to cover distance up to several hundred km. Dragonfly will use a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) to power its instruments. The planned science instrument suite is: * DragonCam: Camera Suite * DrACO: Drill for Acquisition of Complex Organics * DraMS: Mass Spectrometer * DraGNS: Gamma-ray and Neutron Spectrometer * DraGMet: Geophysics and Meteorology

schedule

NET (no earlier than)

Jul 05, 2028, 00:00 UTC

Window opens

Jul 05, 2028, 00:00 UTC

Window closes

Jul 05, 2028, 00:00 UTC

Last updated

Nov 26, 2024, 02:46 UTC

vehicle & provider

Rocket

Falcon Heavy

Family

Falcon

Variant

Heavy

Provider

SpaceX

Type

Commercial

Country

USA