NASA announced that Dragonfly – a dual-quadcopter developed for NASA’s New Frontiers Program – will be sent to Titan: Saturn’s largest moon. Dragonfly, which might be called a rotorcraft lander, is under development by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and has the appearance of an Earth-bound vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system (UAS) or drone.

The majority of science experiments will pertain to environmental analysis and searching for water- or hydrocarbon-based life.

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William Kucinski is content editor at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group in Warrendale, Pa. Previously, he worked as a writer at the NASA Safety Center in Cleveland, Ohio and was responsible for writing the agency’s System Failure Case Studies. His interests include literally anything that has to do with space, past and present military aircraft, and propulsion technology.

Contact him regarding any article or collaboration ideas by e-mail at william.kucinski@sae.org.