Comments on: Dragonfly’s rotors complete testing

By: Richard M

Richard M — Tue, 27 Jan 2026 16:31:25 +0000

The Dragonfly engineers and techs at APL are smart, dedicated guys who I think should deliver quality work product. But it is sobering to realize they’re running into these resource limitations on a mission whose cost has already exploded to flagship levels (now $3.35 billion!).

That isn’t entirely the fault of the Dragonfly team or APL. But it’s a reminder of how vulnerable to cost and schedule issues the NASA science bureaucracy is.

By: pzatchok

pzatchok — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 01:25:14 +0000

This thing is going to Titan but they cant build a replacement one for more Mars exploring.

By: Blair Ivey

Blair Ivey — Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:09:22 +0000

“We didn’t have time or materials to make test parts or extras, so every cut had to be right the first time,”

Are you [word-of-choice] kidding me?! When I build something the first time, I *expect* to make errors. It is also significantly cheaper to ruin a few test articles before moving on to production. I am curious about the water jet, though; was the first cut, in fact, the deepest?