JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
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JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
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Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#2> Aerial mobility gives you reach, range, and resolution
Sounds like the 1st Cav in Vietnam - cower, you tentacled Martian fiends!
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#3Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#4Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
Much too much mass. The atmosphere on Mars is 6.518 millibars. Look to the structure and mass of terrestrial birds for a guide.
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#5Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
Plutonium is really heavy, if you were to do that it strikes me that you'd be better off having some kind of wireless charging device which the helicopter lands on (But at that point why not solar power).
You'd probably already need some batteries anyway as I'm guessing that the transient spikes in power usage would probably exceed any RTG you could fit in a helicopter anyway.
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#6Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
A radioisotope thermoelectric or betavoltaic generator would probably be too heavy for a helicopter, so you'd probably need something a lot more intense than simple radioactive decay.
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#7Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
Do you see any nuclear-powered aircraft flying around on Earth?
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#8Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
Much too much mass. The atmosphere on Mars is 6.518 millibars. Look to the structure and mass of terrestrial birds for a guide.
terrestrial birds which would all have far too low of a lift to weight ratio on mars to ever have any hope of flying. The current mars helicopter is pretty incredible
Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#9Re: JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
#10Wonder if it is practical to design Helicopter with nuclear battery similar to the rover....
Do you see any nuclear-powered aircraft flying around on Earth?
Earth also doesn't have any nuclear powered rovers driving on the surface and yet Mars does. Might have something to do with the fact that the risk to humans on Mars is slightly lower than on Earth,no?