Barber-Nichols’ blower will ride on NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft to Saturn’s moon Titan

It’s not every day you get an opportunity to work on state-of-the-art turbomachinery that will not only be going into space but also landing on the surface of another planet’s moon!

This blower will ride on NASA’s Dragonfly rotorcraft to Saturn’s moon Titan. The blower plays a critical role in Honeybee Robotics’ DrACO sampling system, serving as a vacuum to draw Titan’s cryogenic atmosphere and regolith into Dragonfly’s instruments for scientific analysis. Much thought, creativity, and research went into the design and manufacture of this machinery here at Barber-Nichols. Working closely with Honeybee Robotics, the instrument and lander teams at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, and the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has enabled the seamless design and assembly of these two engineering model blowers.

It was very rewarding witnessing firsthand the excitement and enthusiasm all teams share for the mission after successful initial testing at Barber-Nichols!

Moving forward, these two units will be put through rigorous testing by Honeybee Robotics to ensure the upcoming flight hardware will survive the trip and will function properly when needed.

–Billy Beeble, Technician III, Barber-Nichols

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