Posted on 11/08/2021 6:30:50 PM PST by Ezekiel
The #MarsHelicopter successfully completed its 15th flight on Mars. It flew for 128.8 seconds. Preliminary localization places us within our targeted landing zone. Ingenuity opportunistically took images of science interest and they'll be processed soon. https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter
I’m pleasantly surprised at how well the Marscopter has been going. It’s overcome a couple of issues and as the first time doing something like this, I think I’d classify it as a success even if the copter crashed on the next flight.
It sure does take a long time to take flight...
Global warming must affect charging it.
Hydrogen balloon with high res camera would be a good one time use device, cheap and disposable.. you might then have a better idea where to fly your drone thing
This helicopter was a proof of concept. I’d say it works. Amazing, really. A super arid and cold environment. No maintenance crew within 250,000,000 miles. And it just keeps on keeping on.
Absolutely a success.
Good for Ginny!
It’s amazing that it’s flying at all with <1% of the air we have here on Earth under its blades.
Well this announcement arrived on the 50th anniversary of the release of Stairway to Heaven.
But was it vaxxed?!!
And yet…I’m just wondering - now that it has been proven they can fly in Mars’ thin atmosphere - if a small helicopter would be a useful addition to future lander designs to clear dust off of solar panels (with rotor down wash) since accumulation has put a number of them out of operation?
That sounds like a great idea. I wonder if it has been considered.
AND Mars is still a big ball of dirt.
I’d just design the landers to have the ability to sweep dust off their own panels, much easier, cheaper, and effective.
Or just use a power source that can work even when covered by dust, as Perseverance does with it’s nuclear power source. However, blowing off the dust now and then might help it run a little cooler.
It’s been a great success. My only nitpick is that they didn’t equip it to collect video. Would have been nice to see some POV flyover imagery of the Martian terrain.
After posting, I thought of that possibility as well.
The real discovery was that, as thin as the atmosphere is, there is still enough of it to generate the thrust needed to lift the admittedly very light helicopter. Installing a solar panel cleaning/clearing system is now a matter of working out the most suitable design within weight and power constraints.
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