NASA Dragonfly (space probe)

Dragonfly (space probe)
NASA & Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL)
Laurel, Maryland, USA
www.nasa.gov

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. NASA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 10 major field centers. NASA has made space ships, explored space, the moon, launched satellites, gathered data about Earth from space, made the Skylab Space Station, explored Mars, studied our solar system using space probes and more. (Image credit: Johns Hopkins APL)

NASA started researching distributed electric propulsion (DEP) electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft in 2009. In 2010, according to one website, the first eVTOL aircraft flown was NASA's Puffin subscale eVTOL tailsitting aircraft. In 2014, NASA built both eVTOL and fixed-wing DEP technology demonstrator aircraft. NASA has continued making passenger eVTOL concept designs, technology demonstrators and research eVTOL aircraft for any company that wants to take advantage of NASA's research. In addition, NASA is now making eVTOL and hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft to explore planets and their moons, in our solar system. As of 2024, NASA has not traveled to any other solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy, yet.

Dragonfly Titan moon robotic research eVTOL multicopter space probe
The Dragonfly is a Titan moon uncrewed autonomous robotic research eVTOL multicopter space probe. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and has been reported to be orange and has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth. The robotic eVTOL multicopter space probe will perform multiple scientific experiments for over two years to get a better understanding of the composition and the nature of Titan.

Dragonfly is planned to be launched in 2028 and arrive at Titan in 2034. This would be the first space probe to land on and explore a moon (or any object) on an outer planet in our solar system. The outer planets are the planets in our Solar System that are beyond the asteroid belt and are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Each of these outer planets are gas giants. All four gas giants have planetary rings which are made up of dust and other particles.

The Penn State Vertical Lift Research Center of Excellence is responsible for rotor design and analysis, rotorcraft flight-control development, scaled rotorcraft testbed development, ground testing support, and flight performance assessment. The team at Penn State made and flew a subscale technology demonstrator used to develop the Dragonfly multicopter space probe.

The approximate cruise speed of the Dragonfly multicopter is 22 mph (35 km/h), has an expected range of six miles (10 km) and a flight time of 30 minutes per battery charge. The maximum altitude target the aircraft can achieve is 13,123 ft (4,000 m). The maximum takeoff weight in the area of 400-450 kg (882-990 lb). The fuselage is made from metal and has fixed skid landing gear. The multicopter space probe is designed to operate in a space radiation environment and in temperatures averaging -290.56 °F (−179.2 °C).

The multicopter has eight propellers, eight electric motors and is powered by a lithium-ion battery. There are four booms on the aircraft and at the end of each boom is a set of stacked propellers. The battery is recharged during Titan's night by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), which is a nuclear battery. A Titan day is eight Earth days and a Titan night is eight Earth days.

The aircraft is expected to fly during the Titan day and then recharge its batteries during the moon's night. NASA has planned 3.3 year mission and the Dragonfly is expected to fly about 30 minutes for 6 miles (10 km), once per Titan day. The moon has low gravity, a dense atmosphere and reportedly has little wind allowing for efficient flight propulsion. According to NASA, for a given mass is about 40 times lower than on Earth making it easier to fly on this moon.

Dragonfly's Surface and Atmospheric Science Measurements

• Sample surface material and measure with a mass spectrometer to identify the chemical components, including water, and processes producing biologically relevant compounds
• Measure bulk elemental surface composition with a neutron and gamma ray spectrometer
• Monitor atmospheric and surface conditions, including diurnal and spatial variations, with meteorology sensors
• Use imaging to characterize geologic features and determine if their is a subsurface ocean
• Perform seismic studies to detect subsurface activity and structure

In-flight Measurements

• Measure atmospheric conditions
• Provide aerial images of surface geology
• Give context for surface measurements and scouting of sites of interest

Dragonfly and Ingenuity
The Dragonfly, if successful, will be the second rotorcraft to fly on a celestial body other than Earth. The first helicopter to fly on another planet was NASA's autonomous uncrewed electric helicopter, Ingenuity. Ingenuity's weight was approximately 4 lb (1.8 kg) on Earth and 1.5 lb (.68 kg) on Mars. The mission of the helicopter was both a technology demonstrator and operations demonstrator. Ingenuity had multiple mission objectives such as performing scouting for tactical planning, science assessments and to perform experiments for mission and vehicle design for future Mars rotorcraft. Its first flight was on April 3, 2021 and its last was January 18, 2024. It's original flight objective was to make five flights but it exceeded expectations and made 72 flights. It's 72nd landing damaged the rotorblades which ended the mission.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Titan moon robotic planetary research eVTOL multicopter aircraft space probe
• Piloting: Autonomous
• Capacity: No passengers, carries scientific instruments
• Cruise speed: ~22 mph (~35 km/h)
• Range: 6 miles (10 km) per charge
• Flight time: 30 minutes per charge
• Maximum altitude: 13,123 ft (4,000 m)
• Maximum takeoff weight: 400-450 kg (882-990 lb)
• Propellers: 8 propellers
• Electric motors: 8 electric motors
• Power source: Lithium-ion battery recharged by a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) (a nuclear battery), at night. The battery takes 8 earth days to charge during the Titan night.
• Titan moon day time duration: 8 earth days
• Titan moon night time duration: 8 earth days
• Fuselage: Metal
• Landing gear: Fixed skid landing gear
• Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) means having multiple propellers (or electric ducted fans) and multiple electric motors on an aircraft so if one or more propellers (or electric ducted fans) or some electric motors fail, the other working propellers (or electric ducted fans) and electric motors can safely land the aircraft. DEP provides safety through redundancy for passengers or cargo. There are also redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy. Having multiple redundant systems on any aircraft decreases having any single point of failure.

Related Aircraft:

• NASA Greased Lightning (defunct)
• NASA LA-8 eVTOL Testbed (prototype)
• NASA Lift+Cruise (concept design)
• NASA Multi-Tiltrotor (concept design)
• NASA Puffin (concept design)
• NASA Quadrotor (concept design)
• NASA Quiet Single Main Rotor (concept design)
• NASA Raven (concept design)
• NASA Side-by-Side (concept design)
• NASA Tiltduct (concept design)
• NASA Tiltrotor (concept design)
• NASA Tiltwing (concept design)

Company Insights:

• Crunchbase
• Tracxn
• Wikipedia

Resources:

• NASA website
• NASA Dragonfly website
• NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive for Dragonfly web page
• Dragonfly (Titan space probe) Wikipedia
• NASA Facebook
• NASA Twitter
• NASA YouTube Channel
• NASA Instagram
• NASA LinkedIn
• Article: Titan’s surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth, The European Space Agency, Feb. 13, 2008
• Article: Dragonfly Is the First Aircraft Built for the Outer Solar System, Smithsonian Magazine, Sept. 2020
• Article: NASA Instrument Bound for Titan Could Reveal Chemistry Leading to Life, NASA, Mar. 17, 2023
• Article: NASA’s Dragonfly Tunnel Visions, NASA, Oct. 23, 2023
• Article: NASA’s Dragonfly to Proceed with Final Mission Design Work, NASA, Nov. 28, 2023
• Article: NASA’s Dragonfly Rotorcraft Mission to Saturn’s Moon Titan Confirmed, NASA, Apr. 16, 2024