NASA greenlights 2028 launch for epic Dragonfly mission to Saturn's huge moon Titan

[Admin]

The Dragonfly mission is set to launch in July 2028 on a six-year journey to Saturn's largest moon, Titan.

NASA greenlights 2028 launch for epic Dragonfly mission to Saturn's huge moon Titan : Read more

 

[newtons_laws]

According to this site https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/Why-Titan/ the surface atmosphere of Titan (which incidentally is 94% Nitrogen) is approx 4 times the density of Earth's, and the surface gravity is 1/7 that of Earth's. So taking the two factors together means that it's a lot easier to have a rotorcraft fly on Titan than on Earth. Of course given the distance from the Sun and the thick atmosphere that rules out making the rotorcraft solar powered, so it will be nuclear (RTG) powered. Looks to be a fascinating mission.

 

[Torbjorn Larsson]

and extra funds for a heavy-lift launch vehicle that would compensate for the delayed arrival at Titan by shortening the spacecraft's cruise phase.

Finally finding some actual utility for SLS while it is still operational.

 

[newtons_laws]

Finally finding some actual utility for SLS while it is still operational.

Is it definite that SLS will be used for the launch of Dragonfly, could the Falcon Heavy be a suitable alternative? Wikipedia gives the Falcon Heavy maximum payload capacity to Mars as 16.8 t and to Pluto as 3.5 t, so the max payload to Titan will be somewhere between those values.