The Titan surface is quite cold (94 K, -179 C, -290 F; pick your poison, it’s all darn cold!) but instruments generally prefer more temperate climes. Enter the DraMS “Wonderwall”, which helps to isolate the lander interior from the sample handling region. 1/
#PI_Daily #Dragonfly

The Wonderwall keeps the Titan surface samples as cold as possible during analysis while letting the mass spectrometer do its thing, interacting with said samples. No small feat, hence the name 2/

Yesterday our team reviewed the results of a major test effort, showing that the sample region can indeed remain cold despite sitting inches away from a warm instrument. A tremendous accomplishment led by our team of cryomechanical engineers at @NASAGoddard . 3/

This image shows the very insulated Wonderwall test assembly (+critical interfaces and components) prior to inclusion in test chamber. To properly mimic the various thermal regions a chamber-in-a-chamber(-in-a-chamber) approach is key. 4/

And not only does the Wonderwall enable a critical part of #Dragonfly science at Titan, but it’s fun to sing in meetings...

[at least for those of us who came of age during the 90’s]

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