The Dragonfly mission to Titan is proposed to use a radioisotope thermoelectric generator to supply electrical and thermal power to the spacecraft during flight and once it arrives at its destination. As no spacecraft continuously powered by an RTG has been flown down through Titan's atmosphere before, the effects of such a generator's radiation field on the surrounding environment are unknown. MCNP (Monte Carlo N-Particle) simulations were run on a simplified model of the generator in its protective hull section in a coarse-grained Titan environment with both neutron and photon transport modelled, the former to determine the degree to which the surface was likely to become activated, and the latter to determine the energy likely to be deposited in a surface covering of tholin-analogue hydrocarbons, and consequently the potential for damage to chemical bonds found therein. Tests on the model also provided data which allowed for a determination of the degree to which the insulation surrounding the generator spacecraft might be activated by stray neutrons, how much heating might be expected in the hull section surrounding the generator and how much attenuation the beam from the spacecraft's pulsed neutron generator is likely to experience due to Titan's thick nitrogen atmosphere.

拟议的飞往泰坦的蜻蜓飞行任务将使用放射性同位素热电发生器在飞行过程中以及到达目的地后为航天器提供电能和热能。由于以前没有任何由RTG持续供电的航天器从泰坦的大气层流下，这种发生器的辐射场对周围环境的影响尚不清楚。MCNP（蒙特卡罗N粒子）模拟是在发电机的保护壳截面中，在粗粒土卫六环境中对发电机的简化模型进行的，其中中子和光子输运均已建模，前者用于确定表面的可能程度被激活，后者确定可能沉积在tholin-analog碳氢化合物表面覆盖层中的能量，因此可能会损坏其中发现的化学键。对模型的测试还提供了数据，这些数据可用于确定杂散中子可能会激活发电机航天器周围的绝缘层的程度，在发电机周围的船体部分中预期会产生多少热量以及来自波束的光束会衰减多少由于土卫六的厚厚的氮气氛，航天器的脉冲中子发生器可能会遇到。