Mars hardly has an atmosphere, how does the helicopter get lift?
Helicopters can’t operate high in atmosphere on earth
—
It is pretty amazing an aircraft can be designed to operate where the air is 1% of earth sea level atmospheres. One advantage on Mars the gravity is only 40% that of Earth, so the 4 pound copter is under 2 pounds on Mars. I’ve read the blades spin at much higher velocity than an earth copter. The blades also have an extremely wide chord to scoop more air.
Here is what Ingenuity has: Rotors: 2 carbon-fiber blades, about 4 feet in length. They spin in opposite directions at about 2,400 rpm, much faster than standard helicopter rotors, which run at about 500 rpm. (Ingenuity's blade rotation spin is closer to that of blades in a high-end food processor.) -USAtodayCan you imagine how long a Huey's blades would have to be, or how fast they'd have to spin to fly on Mars???