Dragonfly (spacecraft)
   HOME
*



picture info

Dragonfly (spacecraft)
''Dragonfly'' is a planned spacecraft and NASA mission, which will send a robotic rotorcraft to the surface of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. It would be the first aircraft on Titan and is intended to make the first powered and fully controlled atmospheric flight on any moon, with the intention of studying prebiotic chemistry and extraterrestrial habitability. It will then use its vertical takeoffs and landings (VTOL) capability to move between exploration sites.Dragonfly: Exploring Titan's Prebiotic Organic Chemistry and Habitability
E. P. Turtle, J. W. Barnes, M. G. Trainer, R. D. Lorenz, S. M. MacKenzie, K. E. Hibbard, D. Adams, P. Bedini, J. W. Langelaan, K. Zacny, and the Dragonfly Team ''Lunar and Planetary Science Conference 2017''

[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rotorcraft
A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines a rotorcraft as "supported in flight by the reactions of the air on one or more rotors". Rotorcraft generally include aircraft where one or more rotors provide lift throughout the entire flight, such as helicopters, autogyros, and gyrodynes. Compound rotorcraft augment the rotor with additional thrust engines, propellers, or static lifting surfaces. Some types, such as helicopters are capable of vertical takeoff and landing. An aircraft which uses rotor lift for vertical flight but changes to solely fixed-wing lift in horizontal flight is not a rotorcraft but a convertiplane. Classes of rotorcraft Helicopter A helicopter is a rotorcraft whose rotors are driven by the engine(s) throughout ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Origin Of Life
In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to living entities on Earth was not a single event, but an evolutionary process of increasing complexity that involved the formation of a habitable planet, the prebiotic synthesis of organic molecules, molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis, and the emergence of cell membranes. Many proposals have been made for different stages of the process. The study of abiogenesis aims to determine how pre-life chemical reactions gave rise to life under conditions strikingly different from those on Earth today. It primarily uses tools from biology and chemistry, with more recent approaches attempting a synthesis of many sciences. Life functions through the specialized chemistry of carbon and ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consistently ranks among the most prestigious universities in the United States and the world. The university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and Quaker philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Hopkins' $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest Philanthropy, philanthropic gift in U.S. history up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as :Presidents of Johns Hopkins University, Johns Hopkins's first president on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has led all Higher education in the U ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Ralph Lorenz
Ralph D. Lorenz is a planetary scientist and engineer at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. whose research focuses on understanding surfaces, atmospheres, and their interactions on planetary bodies, especially Titan, Venus, Mars, and Earth. He currently serves as Mission Architect of ''Dragonfly'', NASA's fourth selected New Frontiers mission, and as participating scientist on ''Akatsuki'' and ''InSight''. He is a Co-Investigator on the SuperCam instrument on the Perseverance rover, responsible for interpreting data from its microphone. He leads the Venus Atmospheric Structure Investigation on the DAVINCI Discovery mission to Venus. He is the recipient of the 2020 International Planetary Probe Workshop (IPPW) Al Seiff memorial award, and the 2022 American Geophysical Union's Fred Whipple Award for contributions to planetary science. Education Lorenz earned a B.Eng. in Aerospace Systems Engineering from the University of Southampton (UK) Department of Aeronautics and Ast ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


AVIATR
AVIATR (Aerial Vehicle for In situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance) was a proposed airplane mission concept to Titan, a moon of Saturn. The concept was developed in 2011 by a team of scientists led by Jason W. Barnes at the University of Idaho. Compared to Earth, Titan has about one-seventh the gravity but four times the atmospheric density. These conditions make it easier to fly there. Summary The Aerial Vehicle for In-situ and Airborne Titan Reconnaissance (AVIATR) is a proposed unmanned plane (or drone) which if approved, will take high-definition images of the surface of Saturn's moon Titan to help scientists understand the moon's geology. It is planned that at the end of the mission, the unmanned plane will attempt a landing on Titan's dunes. Overview The design called for a airplane powered by an advanced Stirling radioisotope generator that would have allowed it to fly uninterrupted for about one year. However, the National Research Council's "Decadal Survey" did not pr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

University Of Idaho
The University of Idaho (U of I, or UIdaho) is a public land-grant research university in Moscow, Idaho. It is the state's land-grant and primary research university,, and the lead university in the Idaho Space Grant Consortium. The University of Idaho was the state's sole university for 71 years, until 1963. Its College of Law, established in 1909, was first accredited by the American Bar Association in 1925. Formed by the Idaho Territory legislature on January 30, 1889, the university opened its doors in 1892 on October 3, with an initial class of 40 students. The first graduating class in 1896 contained two men and two women. It has an enrollment exceeding 12,000, with over 11,000 on the Moscow campus. The university offers 142 degree programs, from accountancy to wildlife resources, including bachelor's, master's, doctoral, and specialists' degrees, and accompanyinhonors programs Certificates of completion are offered in 30 areas of study. At 25% and 53%, its 4 and 6 y ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Mars 2020
Mars 2020 is a Mars rover mission forming part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program that includes the rover ''Perseverance'', the small robotic, coaxial helicopter '' Ingenuity'', and associated delivery vehicles. Mars 2020 was launched from Earth on an Atlas V launch vehicle at 11:50:01 UTC on 30 July 2020, and confirmation of touch down in the Martian crater Jezero was received at 20:55 UTC on 18 February 2021. On 5 March 2021, NASA named the landing site of the rover Octavia E. Butler Landing. As of , ''Perseverance'' and ''Ingenuity'' have been on Mars for sols ( total days; '). ''Perseverance'' will investigate an astrobiologically relevant ancient environment on Mars and investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and the potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials. It will cache sample containers along its route for retr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Perseverance (rover)
''Perseverance'', nicknamed ''Percy'', is a car-sized Mars rover designed to explore the Jezero crater on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission. It was manufactured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and launched on July 30, 2020, at 11:50 UTC. Confirmation that the rover successfully landed on Mars was received on February 18, 2021, at 20:55 UTC. As of , ''Perseverance'' has been active on Mars for sols ( Earth days, or ) since its landing. Following the rover's arrival, NASA named the landing site Octavia E. Butler Landing. ''Perseverance'' has a similar design to its predecessor rover, ''Curiosity'', although it was moderately upgraded. It carries seven primary payload instruments, nineteen cameras, and two microphones. The rover also carried the mini-helicopter '' Ingenuity'' to Mars, an experimental aircraft and technology testbed that made the first powered flight on another planet on April 19, 2021. As of December 22, 2022, it has made 37 successful flights. '' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ingenuity (helicopter)
''Ingenuity,'' nicknamed ''Ginny,'' is a small robotic helicopter operating on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission along with the ''Perseverance'' rover, which landed with ''Ingenuity'' attached to its underside on February 18, 2021. The helicopter was deployed to the surface on April 3, 2021,"NASA's Mars Helicopter: Small, Autonomous Rotorcraft To Fly On Red Planet"
, Shubham Sharma, ''International Business Times'', 14 May 2018
and on April 19 successfully made the first powered controlled extraterrestrial flight by an aircraft, taking off vertically, hovering and landing for a flight duration of 39.1 s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller and a system of communications with the UAV. The flight of UAVs may operate under remote control by a human operator, as remotely-piloted aircraft (RPA), or with various degrees of autonomy, such as autopilot assistance, up to fully autonomous aircraft that have no provision for human intervention. UAVs were originally developed through the twentieth century for military missions too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for humans, and by the twenty-first, they had become essential assets to most militaries. As control technologies improved and costs fell, their use expanded to many non-military applications.Hu, J.; Bhowmick, P.; Jang, I.; Arvin, F.; Lanzon, A.,A Decentralized Cluster Formation Containment Framework for Multirobot Systems IEEE Tr ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]