How do you fly a car-sized nuclear-powered drone through the freezing skies of an alien moon?

We're learning more about dragonfly. This week on Planetary Radio.

I'm Sarah al-Ahmed of the Planetary Society, with more of the human adventure across our solar system and beyond.

Imagine a thousand kilogram drone soaring through a thick atmosphere over organic sand dunes.

That's the vision for NASA's Dragonfly mission, which is currently being built and tested for an epic journey to Saturn's largest moon.

This week we're exploring the engineering required to fly a craft of that size in Titan's frigid temperatures.

Joining me from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, our lead rotor engineer Felipe Ruiz, and principal investigator,ibby Turtle. They'll reveal how the mission

currently stands in its integration and test phase and how they upgraded the rotor design to get the

smoothest ride through the titanium skies. Then Bruce Betts, our chief scientist, joins me for

what's up, where we look back at the ingenuity Mars helicopter, the first powered, controlled flight on another

world. If you love planetary radio and want to stay informed about the latest space discoveries,

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you'll never miss an episode filled with new and awe-inspiring ways to know the cosmos and our place

within it.

Titan is one of the most Earth-like worlds in our solar system, despite being frozen and covered in methane, rain, rivers, and lakes instead of water.

But its thick atmosphere and low gravity make it a perfect place to fly.

It's about 40 times easier to fly there than it is here on Earth.

That's why NASA chose a rotor craft to explore it instead of a traditional rover.

Dragonfly will be able to hop from sight to sight, covering ground that no-wheeled rover could ever reach.

It's going to be sampling the organic chemistry of this world that mirrors what early

Earth looked like before life ever took hold. To walk us through how this all works, I'm joined by two

guests from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, which manages the mission for NASA

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