You know helicopters in Mars is totally Phillip K Dick material.
Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
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Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#22Link to the underlying press release [0] which has slightly more info than the BBC article. There is a bit more background about the project at [1], with some key points being: "The helicopter uses counter-rotating coaxial rotors about 1.1 m in diameter. Its payload will be a high resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data…
"The helicopter uses counter-rotating coaxial rotors about 1.1 m in diameter..."
Not to be little it but, in short, a drone.
I presume the rocket scientists are jealous ;)
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#23Link to the underlying press release [0] which has slightly more info than the BBC article. There is a bit more background about the project at [1], with some key points being: "The helicopter uses counter-rotating coaxial rotors about 1.1 m in diameter. Its payload will be a high resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data…
It says a lot to how routine using satellite navigation aids has become that my first question was why they’re not using GPS.
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#24Can't NASA test this in an artificial atmosphere low-pressure low-gravity room? Obviously there will be real-world concerns that are hard to simulate like slight damage from spacecraft landing and dust spun up when the copter takes off, but the article makes it sound like the low density is the big thing they're worried about.
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#25Can't NASA test this in an artificial atmosphere low-pressure low-gravity room? Obviously there will be real-world concerns that are hard to simulate like slight damage from spacecraft landing and dust spun up when the copter takes off, but the article makes it sound like the low density is the big thing they're worried about.
Simulating dust kick-up would be easier than constructing a "low gravity" room.
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#26It will need smarts to fly and land, and land especially to save power while it awaits the next destination command. The land surveys can only see so much and if you land wrong on a even a small rock, you could get stuck top over
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#27Link to the underlying press release [0] which has slightly more info than the BBC article. There is a bit more background about the project at [1], with some key points being: "The helicopter uses counter-rotating coaxial rotors about 1.1 m in diameter. Its payload will be a high resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, landing, and science surveying of the terrain, and a communication system to relay data…
It says a lot to how routine using satellite navigation aids has become that my first question was why they’re not using GPS.
Wait, could they use earth GPS and it would just be very innacurate?
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#28Why not a few quadcopters like GoPro or something. I guess those are more stable and cheap.
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#29Why not a few quadcopters like GoPro or something. I guess those are more stable and cheap.
My guess is a normal quadcopter doesn't have a big enough thrust to weight ratio in Mars' atmosphere.
Re: Nasa will send helicopter to Mars to test otherworldly flight
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
It says a lot to how routine using satellite navigation aids has become that my first question was why they’re not using GPS.
Wait, could they use earth GPS and it would just be very innacurate?
GPS requires a bunch of satellites to be in orbit first, and we haven't sent them to Mars yet.