Dragonfly Model Tested in NFAC.

The article discusses the Dragonfly model, which is NASA's fourth New Frontiers mission. The Dragonfly rover is a coaxial-quadrotor aerial vehicle that will be launched to Saturn's largest moon, Titan, in 2028. The article highlights the challenges of designing a rotorcraft for Titan's unique conditions, such as its cryogenic atmosphere and low gravity. The Dragonfly mission aims to explore Titan's prebiotic chemistry and habitability. The article also mentions the wind tunnel testing conducted at the National Full-scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) to validate the aerodynamic measurements of the Dragonfly lander and backshell. The wind tunnel data will be used to refine computational fluid dynamics models for the Dragonfly development effort. The Dragonfly mission is managed by the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and involves collaboration with NASA Langley Research Center, NASA Ames Research Center, Lockheed Martin Space, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky Aircraft, and the US Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC). The NFAC wind tunnel test team included members from APL, NASA Langley, NASA Ames, Lockheed Martin Space, Lockheed Martin Sikorsky Aircraft, and the US Air Force AEDC. The Dragonfly test is part of a series of wind tunnel activities at NFAC that have supported various NASA space missions. [Extracted from the article]

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