https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/mars-helicopter-to-fly-on-nasa-s-next-red-planet-rover-mission
NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars. The Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with the agency’s Mars 2020 rover mission, currently scheduled to launch in July 2020,to demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on the Red Planet.
“NASA has a proud history of firsts,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling. The Mars Helicopter holds much promise for our future science, discovery, and exploration missions to Mars.”
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Started in August 2013 as a technology development project at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the Mars Helicopter had to prove that big things could come in small packages. The result of the team’s four years of design, testing and redesign weighs in at little under four pounds (1.8 kilograms). Its fuselage is about the size of a softball, and its twin, counter-rotating blades will bite into the thin Martian atmosphere at almost 3,000 rpm – about 10 times the rate of a helicopter on Earth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOMQOqKRWjU
Flying a helicopter on Mars is ridiculously difficult due to the thin atmosphere. I hope we get video footage of it, because it's bound to look very strange compared to what we're used to.
the low gravity does make it easier though, they might be doing something with reaction wheels to keep it upright, otherwise this will be the most expensive drone crash in history (thus far)
i bet the new rover still wont have a camera that can do 24fps recording
Just being able to see footage on another planet is mind blowingly amazing. What a time to be alive
The benefit of lower gravity is completely overshadowed by the massive difference in air pressure.
It's super low on mars, only about 0.6% that of earth. This is why the curiosity rover had to land using thrusters rather than parachutes.
Then again, this only weights 1.8KG and not 174KG.
(Thought Curiosity was heavier actually, for something as big as a car thats pretty light.)
Will be cool to have something faster on Mars. Hope it works out and does a good job long enough.
Wonder if they take two with them or if they just stick to one.
Obviously. There is no scientific value in having that.
IDK, it seems like its easier to spin blades at higher speeds than deal with higher gravity. Even though its at a very low pressure, carbon dioxide is still much more dense than air, giving you at least something to push. Looking at the lift equation, speed will overshadow the density problem since it increases as the product of a square. We're really good at making things spin really fast for little energy.
Its still quite a fragile probe for what is such a large and complex mission though. One side benefit I suppose is that it will be able to clear itself of dust thanks to being able to generate some kind of wind.
I'm more concerned about something that light getting royally fucked by the first wind-storm.
It's a shame, I would like to see the sunrise and sunset on Mars.
I wonder how they created a test chamber for it to fly in to test how it performs in a similar atmosphere to mars. Did they make it big enough to maneuver in, or just big enough to hover in
Just give the rover the ability to record to VHS tapes, these will then be dispatched on mini (firework-sized) rockets back to Earth. Can't believe NASA hasn't thought of this they are so dumb
How is this not a drone...
I didn't even know they had a 2020 mission on the table, I thought it was just in the theoretical stage still
Not only bandwidth but duration of continuous transmission as we don't have global satellite coverage of Mars.
I think NASA or the ESA would do well to put some additional communications satellites in orbit. If someone could get a MAGNUM sized satellite in orbit of Mars with a transmitter/receiver that would be great.
iirc NASA has a giant vacuum chamber from the Apollo days they still use to test stuff like this. I'm pretty sure they would be able to set it to something similar to a mars atmosphere (which is only around 0.6% of earth's atmospheric pressure)
We landed on the moon for the first time almost 50 years ago, and we should have had people on mars at least a decade ago. I'm honestly disappointed in how hard we've stagnated.
So Nathan Explosion was right.
We really did need to build a space helicopter.
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