
NASA May Decide This Year to Land a Drone on Saturn's Moon Titan - gyre007
https://www.space.com/43010-dragonfly-mission-would-put-a-drone-on-titan.html
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cheeko1234
Dragonfly is such an amazing concept. A nuclear powered quadcopter!

[http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/](http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/)

>Unable to use solar power under Titan's hazy atmosphere, Dragonfly would use
a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG), like the
durable Curiosity rover on Mars. Flight, data transmission, and most science
operations would be planned during Titan's daytime hours (eight Earth days),
giving the rotorcraft plenty of time during the Titan night to recharge.

~~~
ianai
There’s got to be a way to do that here. Ie replacing oil power generation
with nuclear - say for the largest container ships.

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reaperducer
It's already being done. Since 1955 in submarines. Since 1959 in ice breakers.
Since 1962 in commercial shipping.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion)

~~~
kolinko
I wonder - why don't they use it for container ships and so on? I would
imagine fuel savings there, and lower pollution would be immense.

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Armisael16
Well, it does result in enriched nuclear material floating all over the ocean,
ripe for the taking by pirates or nation-states that we'd rather not have
access.

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ianai
So you use the same naval threat that we already use to deter idiots from our
nuclear powered vessels.

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nradov
Pirates still seize large merchant ships in Asian and African waters on a
monthly basis. There are only a few hundred surface vessels capable of
effective anti-piracy patrols worldwide from all navies and coast guards; they
can't be everywhere at once.

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mabbo
I think the real breakthrough on some of these probes to other planets isn't
so much how they move around, but the growing possibility of self-directed
action. Mars is between 3 light minutes and 22 light minutes away. Every
command takes at least that long to reach a probe on Mars, then the same
amount of time for NASA to be told "Yes, I heard you and did that".

The Curiosity rover has been on Mars for 6 years. It can travel 90m/hour.
Theoretically, it could have moved 3,400km by now- that's more than once
around the equator of Mars. It's managed almost 20km. While I'm sure there was
much to pause and study, I cannot fathom that it could not have done more in
it's time were it not constantly waiting for commands.

Saturn is, at closest approach, more than 1 light hour away.

I feel as though there's a real need to put a generic computer system that can
be reprogrammed after launch into orbit around whatever planet we're studying.
Give it higher-level commands of what we want to see happen, and send us back
the highlight reel.

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erohead
Curiosity's top speed across flat ground is just 0.09 mph (0.14 km/h).

~~~
Someone
And, of course, that is wildly optimistic, given the actual terrain it runs
on. [https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-
labor...](https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/fact_sheets/mars-science-
laboratory.pdf):

 _”NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., […] engineered
Curiosity […] to travel up to about 200 meters (660 feet) per day on Martian
terrain.”_

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ianai
Is there a way to throw money at specific NASA projects? Ie a way for the
crowd to indicate interest. I doubt it, but nasa is pretty popular

~~~
anticensor
No, government agencies may not accept targeted donations due to anti-
corruption law.

~~~
mellow-lake-day
Apparently it's legal in some cases when you give it directly to people

>Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some
troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia
and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of
top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the
political contributions are legal.

[https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/put...](https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2018/05/08/putins-
proxies-helped-funnel-millions-gop-campaigns)

~~~
corndoge
This partisan op-ed is barely tangentially related to the OP. So tired of
seeing worn out sensationalist divisive news where it obviously doesn't
belong.

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auggierose
As long as it is not Jupiter's Europa, because, as we know, we should leave it
alone.

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actualdc1
When did we start calling them drones instead of probes?

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maxxxxx
Because it will fly around.

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mrfusion
The headline says they’ll land it though.

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maxxxxx
It's going to land and then fly to a new location from time to time.

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DoctorOetker
>But incorporating extraterrestrial drone technology is a means to an end, not
the final goal.

they are really trolling the crackpots here by saying _incorporating_ instead
of _implementing_ extraterrestrial drone technology...

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furgooswft13
Well, I really hope they actually decide to do this then, as the concept of
YAML (Yet Another Mars Lander, also a serialization language) is starting to
bore me. Call me jaded, but I'm a bit tired of looking at pictures of dusty
red rocks. I'm ready for the Spaceman Spiff landscapes and aliens surely to be
found on the moons of the gas giants. Bring it NASA.

Yes I realize the other option detailed in the article is a comet sample
return. Meh, some comets do that for free you know? I say at this point, go
big or stay on Earth.

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whatshisface
> _the concept of YAML (Yet Another Mars Lander, also a serialization
> language) is starting to bore me. Call me jaded, but I 'm a bit tired of
> looking at pictures of dusty red rocks_

They aren't doing it for the pictures of rocks, these missions have science
goals you know.

~~~
furgooswft13
Detailed study of dusty red rocks is all fine and dandy, but I don't think
anyone is clamoring to land a man on Mars for #ScienceGoals. The most
inspiring space achievements have all been trailblazing, and visually iconic.
Think of Earthrise from Apollo 8, first Man on the Moon photo from Apollo 11,
the lunar rover, the Blue Marble, the Space Shuttle itself, images from
Hubble, landing 2 SpaceX rocket boosters at the same time etc. The Viking
landings on Mars count too as well as the first rovers, but we're far into
diminishing returns territory at this point.

Given the reality of a limited budget, I'd prefer to see those resources spent
towards doing something new, more challenging, and more interesting; such as
landing on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn (or even a more durable modern
lander/drone on Venus). Also I think there is plenty of science to be had on a
geologically active moon with a significant atmosphere.

~~~
zipwitch
In the real. of achievable but not yet done, I want a Neptune and/or Uranus
orbiter.

A Neptune orbiter could give us a detailed look at both an ice giant and it's
dwarf-planet-sized moon Triton, believed to be a captured KBO.

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inamberclad
0.14g surface gravity and 1.45 times earth's atmospheric density might make
this a very good way to get around.

Edit: The low wattage of RTGs strikes again. This thing will do one hop every
Titan day (16 Earth days) [0].

Edit 2: I'm conflating atmospheric pressure and density. However, it appears
to have a 98.4% nitrogen atmosphere, so that seems reasonable.

[0]: [http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-
Dragonfly/](http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/What-Is-Dragonfly/)

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wbl
This is why we need the kilopower.

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isoprophlex
This is amazing, and it makes so much sense. I hope this project gets off the
ground (ha!). I want to know if there's animo acids or RNA floating around
that lake.

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pytyper2
I would personally find more interest in an exploratory pit mine on the moon.

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sallop
Drone? Can it fly? Is it a quad copter?

Why are we calling rover deones now? Clickbait?

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archgoon
> Can it fly?

Yes.

> Is it a quad copter?

No; current designs are showing it to be an octocopter.

