Weekly Space Hangout: November 18, 2020 – Dr. Ralph Lorenz, Planetary Scientist and Dragonfly Mission Architect

This week we are airing Fraser’s pre-recorded interview with Dr. Ralph Lorenz, planetary scientist and aerospace engineer from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Ralph is the Mission Architect of the upcoming Dragonfly Mission to Titan, and the author of the new book, Saturn’s Moon Titan Owners’ Workshop Manual.

Ralph was a member of the Cassini Radar team, and helped to develop the Huygens Surface Science Package. He has played a major role in the definition of a range of US and European Titan mission concepts, from airships and hot-air balloons, through airplanes, landers and even a submarine. Thomson–Reuters Sciencewatch in 2011 named Ralph Lorenz as one of the world’s top planetary scientists by impact. He is currently working on a design study adopted by NASA for a quadcopter probe named ‘Dragonfly’, designed to explore Titan.

Ralph’s latest book is Saturn’s Moon Titan Owners’ Workshop Manual (Haynes, 2020) which is available on Amazon and directly through Haynes.

Complete information about Dragonfly is available on the Mission Website.

Hosts:

Fraser Cain (Website: Universe Today ; Twitter: @fcain)

Beth Johnson (Twitter: @planetarypan)

Dr. Morgan Rehnberg (Website: Morgan Rehnberg ; Twitter: @MorganRehnberg)

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