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Where NASAs Dragonfly mission is going, We dont need roads

By trading wheels for helicopter blades, NASA is upping its game for the Dragonfly mission, a flying machine intended to explore Titan, an icy moon of Saturn. 

The team has started assembling the honeycomb panels for the aircraft’s main body, completed a series of drop tests on the parachute system, and demonstrated that its compact chemistry lab can pick out tiny amounts of target molecules in test samples.

This NASA robot, expected to launch as early as 2028, is no space orbiter. Dragonfly will be an SUV-size, eight-rotor aircraft, designed specifically to navigate the hazy orange skies of Titan, a world larger than the planet Mercury. It will explore the alien landscape much like NASA’s fleet of rovers, except Dragonfly will have a much faster way of getting from Point A to B. In the words of Back to the Future‘s Doc Brown: “Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.” 

Titan, about 886 million miles from Earth, is the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere. But Titan’s air is thick — about 1.5 times the pressure at Earth’s sea level and roughly three times as dense, said Charles Malespin, who leads the team that built the hardware for analyzing Titan’s samples. Because it is so cold in this alien world, gases like methane become liquids, and the atmosphere turns into a heavy blanket. Meanwhile, the moon has just one-seventh Earth’s gravity.  

“That’s why an octocopter is primed for that, because you could fly very easily through it,” Malespin said. “We could cover a huge amount of terrain and explore a much larger area.”

SEE ALSO:

Mars did have complex carbon. A NASA rover found its hiding place.

Scientists see Titan as a kind of time machine for understanding how life begins. Its methane‑rich atmosphere constantly produces complex organic molecules that dust the icy surface, creating dunes and deposits of carbon‑based material. On early Earth, similar chemistry may have helped make the building blocks of life, but our planet’s surface has since changed dramatically because of life and geology. 

Titan, by contrast, stays frozen and preserves that chemistry. By flying from dune fields to an ancient crater where water and organics could have mixed, researchers hope Dragonfly will allow them to study how simple ingredients evolve into more complex molecules. 

“There was a melt pool that may have lasted up to about 1,000 years. That is a lot of time for chemistry to happen between the organics that are depositing in it and the water,” said Melissa Trainer, a planetary scientist and the lead for Dragonfly’s DraMS instrument, a quasi-acronym for its mass spectrometer. “Who knows what we could make in a 1,000-year chemistry experiment?”

For a handful of reporters at Goddard Space Flight Center in April, NASA walked through how the $3.35 billion mission will drill into Titan’s rock-hard ice, analyze samples with its built‑in chemistry lab, and then lift off again to explore a new spot. The device will use a carousel of 40 sample cups, tiny ovens, and a laser to study the Saturn moon’s plentiful organic material.

It’s the opposite of what the tiny drone Ingenuity, which went kaput two years ago, faced on Mars. There, the air is about 100 times thinner than Earth’s. To lift itself, Ingenuity needed very long blades and a featherweight body, leaving hardly any wiggle room to carry instruments.

But for Dragonfly, engineers can exploit its larger body to stuff it full of tools. 

“If you had cardboard wings, you could fly just by pushing because the atmosphere is pretty much so thick there,” Malespin said. 

NASA engineers integrating DraMS into Dragonfly

NASA Dragonfly team members begin integrating the sample carousel into the DraMS mass spectrometer instrument.
Credit: NASA / Mike Guinto

Mobility is the other key reason NASA built Dragonfly as an aircraft. Rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance on Mars move slowly, perhaps half a football field in a day. Dragonfly, on the other hand, could traverse miles.

Researchers will use the mission’s measurements collected over three years to study prebiotic chemistry, the steps that occur on the way to making life. They are looking for familiar building blocks, such as amino acids, nucleobases, and fatty acids.

But one limitation for the mission is that Dragonfly can’t explore Titan’s lakes or seas of liquid methane and ethane at the north pole. Instead, the robot is built to explore an equatorial region of dunes. That’s fine with the team, said deputy project scientist Shannon MacKenzie, because some of the materials scientists are looking for on Titan don’t dissolve well in liquids anyway. 

“We want to go to the sand,” MacKenzie said. “Those organic sand particles are probably the end result of a lot more of that chemistry than what we would be able to slurp up out of the lakes.”

Awaiting those detections will take a great deal of patience for the team. The journey alone to get to Titan in the outer solar system will take nearly seven years. 

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Teslas Robotaxi service is now active in part of Miami

A new fleet of autonomous taxis has arrived in one of America’s worst traffic cities.

Specifically, Tesla’s Robotaxi service is now active in Miami, according to a post from the company on X. The same post included a map of a relatively small portion of West Miami, where you can currently hail a Robotaxi. Presumably, more of the city will be included in the service at some point, but for now, the robot cars are limited to those areas.

SEE ALSO:

Autopiloted Tesla reportedly involved in Texas crash that killed a woman

This follows a limited rollout in Houston and Dallas back in April. Tesla’s Robotaxi service has been slowly expanding across the United States, and if precedent holds, the cabs will be available in a larger portion of Miami in the near-ish future, as Austin went from limited to full availability last month. Other cities that could get Robotaxi service this year include Orlando, Tampa, and Phoenix, though, as Electrek pointed out back in April, the company has not been especially good about meeting plans on time.

It should also be noted that these Robotaxis do not come with safety monitors. This is certainly one way to get around in Miami without worrying as much about the city’s notoriously awful traffic problems, but keep in mind the risks involved.


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White House purges thousands of web pages about energy saving during heatwave

If you want information about saving energy during a massively unpleasant heatwave, the United States Department of Energy doesn’t seem willing to help.

The Verge and others reported that the Department of Energy conducted a broad, sweeping purge of roughly 6,000 pages on its website related to energy conservation this week. While no one in the federal government has provided definitive confirmation of why this happened, the deletions came shortly after New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani shared an advisory on social media urging New Yorkers to set their indoor air conditioners to 78 degrees in the middle of a heatwave.

SEE ALSO:

Despite the backlash, Donald Trump is using AI again

Conservative accounts immediately pounced on Mamdani’s post, accusing the mayor of spreading the horrors of communism by asking people to keep their homes at a moderate temperature during a weekend in which New York City reached triple-digit temperatures. However, many quickly pointed out that the Department of Energy’s official stance mirrored Mamdani’s guidance. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, had also shared identical guidance in the past during heatwaves.

Within 24 hours or so of Mamdani’s announcement, eagle-eyed internet users noticed that the Department of Energy had deleted its own web pages espousing the same advice.

Again, no one knows for certain why these web pages were deleted at the precise time they were. But the timing is suspect, and given the Trump administration’s previous actions, it’s not unreasonable to assume it was done out of pettiness.


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World Cup: The internet reacts to Team USA striker Folarin Baloguns red card

UPDATE: July 5, 2026, 1:36 p.m. EDT

FIFA has lifted Folarin Balogun’s suspension, clearing the USA forward to play in Monday’s World Cup round of 16 match against Belgium in Seattle, multiple sources confirmed Sunday, with the news first reported by The Athletic.

Balogun had been facing an automatic one-game ban after receiving a red card in last week’s round of 32 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina — a game in which he also scored the winning goal — but the decision was overturned after review. U.S. Soccer confirmed the ruling in a statement, saying it accepted the Disciplinary Committee’s decision and was focused on the upcoming match. Balogun currently leads the U.S. squad with three goals at this World Cup.

Read our original story below.

Team USA won its game on Wednesday night, defeating Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It marks only the second time that the team has won in a knockout stage match in the team’s history at the World Cup.

While many U.S. soccer fans celebrated the win, referee Raphael Claus put a major damper on the celebrations due to a red card issued to Team USA striker Folarin Balogun. Fans took to the internet to voice their displeasure with the ref’s decision, which required a VAR review.

The red card was issued in the 64th minute of the game, making the win even more challenging for Team USA. The team ultimately pulled off the win, but there are further consequences from receiving the red card that may affect Team USA’s chances in the round of 16 game against Belgium on Monday.

So, what does this all mean for Team USA? Here’s a rundown along with some of the internet’s best reactions to Balogun being issued a red card.

What is a red card?

Yellow cards and red cards are doled out by referees in order to uphold the rules of the match.

Yellow cards serve as a warning, whereas red cards are issued for more serious, egregious violations.

What happens when a player receives a red card?

When a player receives a red card, they are immediately forced out of the game and their team is forced to play with a man down. In Team USA’s case, Balogun had to leave the game and USA needed to play the rest of the match with 10 players versus Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 11 players.

In addition, the player that’s issued the red card is suspended for their team’s next match. Team USA will be able to play with 11 on the pitch against Belgium, but Balogun will not be able to play.

Why are U.S. fans upset?

For one, the red card was seen as fairly controversial.

During the 64th minute of the game, Balogun and Bosnia and Herzegovina defender Tarik Muharemovic both appeared to go for the ball. Balogun and Muharemovic collided, with Balogun’s cleat stepping on Muharemovic’s ankle as both players fell to the ground.

Analysts and former FIFA refs have shared their opinions on whether Balogun deserved the red card, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a consensus. Some agree it was a red card offense, others disagree.

Furthermore, the contact appeared accidental as both Balogun and the player for Bosnia and Herzegovina went for the ball. In addition, the red didn’t even issue a yellow card at first and required a VAR check before issuing any card. After review, the ref deemed the incident as a “serious foul” and issued the red card.

Balogun has been Team USA’s top goal scorer with three goals across three games that he played in. Not having him on the field against Belgium certainly puts Team USA at a disadvantage.

Some fans have been upset about what they view as uneven refereeing across the tournament. A common example being used by fans is when Messi appeared to commit a similar foul in the group stage games. Messi was not called on the foul and didn’t receive a red or yellow card.

Can the ref’s red card decision be appealed?

A red card and a subsequent match suspension cannot be appealed, according to FIFA.

To make matters even worse, FIFA can review the foul and decide to suspend Balogun for additional games. This already happened in one World Cup game this year when FIFA extended a red card suspension against a Qatari player to five games after a foul resulted in a Canadian player breaking their leg.

For now, though, Team USA is focused on their round of 16 game against Belgium on Monday.

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