26/06/2019
Aerospace has traditionally taken a conservative approach to developing and testing software on which its products increasingly rely.
Satellites downsize for bigger constellations
30/04/2019
As the CubeSat turns 20 the pressure on cost and size for space launches continues.
26/04/2019
How can Blockchain be used to solve the growing e-waste problem? Stewart McGrenary explains.
24/04/2019
PCB Design and Manufacturing Live opens its doors for a second year, welcoming a host of the industry’s PCB experts.
11/04/2019
When selecting and using electronic components in space they will need to be reliable and capable of surviving the harsh conditions they’ll experience over an extended period of time.
How AI being used to improve airport security?
14/03/2019
As passenger numbers rise, airports will struggle to cope. Here, Bethan Grylls explores how AI is being used to enhance security.
01/03/2019
The setting up of the new Future Networks Lab looks to support and enable the adoption of IoT, LPWAN and 5G technologies.
NASA Plans Drone Flights on Saturn Moon Titan
by Mark Huber - July 1, 2019, 9:06 AM
NASA plans to fly a drone on the surface of Saturn moon Titan beginning in 2034. The eight-rotor Dragonfly lander will traverse through Titan’s dense—four times that of Earth’s—atmosphere carrying a scientific payload designed to detect prebiotic chemistry.
“With the Dragonfly mission, NASA will once again do what no one else can do,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “Visiting this mysterious ocean world could revolutionize what we know about life in the universe. This cutting-edge mission would have been unthinkable even just a few years ago, but we’re now ready for Dragonfly’s amazing flight.”
Slated to launch in 2026, Dragonfly will land in the equatorial “Shangri-La” dune fields, explore the region in short flights, and building up to a series of longer “leapfrog” flights of up to five miles, stopping along the way to take surface samples. It will finally reach the Selk impact crater, where there is evidence of past liquid water. The lander will eventually fly more than 108 miles—nearly double the distance traveled to date by all the Mars rovers combined.
