NASA has confirmed its Dragonfly rotorcraft mission to Saturn’s organic-rich moon Titan. The decision allows the mission to progress to completion of final design, followed by the construction and testing of the entire spacecraft and science instruments. “Dragonfly is a spectacular science mission with broad community interest, and we are excited to take the next […]
  • jqubed@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    7 months ago

    Dragonfly marks the first time NASA will fly a vehicle for science on another planetary body.

    What about the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter?

    • towerful@programming.devEnglish
      4·
      7 months ago

      A planetary body is a planet-thats-not-quite-a-planet.
      Mars is a planet. Pluto is a planetary body. Our moon is a planetary body.

      It’s like the word recall. In every day terms, recall means to take back. In car terms, it can include an over-the-air update that requires no action by the owner.
      Or theory. In everyday use, it’s essentially an educated guess. In scientific terms it’s something that can be repeatably & reproducibly tested and confirmed.

      • lemmingEnglish
        4·
        7 months ago

        The catch in this one is not a planetary body, but for science. Ingenuity was a technological demonstrator without any scientific instrumentation on board. I’m sure someone will use some of its images and flight data for science (probably already did), but its purpose was a proof of concept, not science. Dragonfly goes to Titan to do science.