Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends. If the primary point was to put a man on the moon, the cost of bringing things back is basically free. If on the other hand the primary mission was bringing back as many rocks as possible, then yes, the return would be very expensive.
It's interesting to think about: The stated mission for the Space Race has often been "put a man in orbit", "put a man on the Moon", "put staff in the space station for X period". But implicit in all of those mission designs has been the goal of returning the crew alive and in one piece. The record is rather favorable in that regard, and it's always a tragedy when we lose someone. So that's one of the reasons a crewe…
Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
171–180 of 210 posts
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#172Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, but the rover itself was in possesion of russia and is now in posession of Garriot. That is undisputed. What is rightfully disputed, is whether he also owns the land under the rover. He would like to, but not possible with current laws.
> What is rightfully disputed, is whether he also owns the land under the rover. He would like to, but not possible with current laws. Actually, contrary to the opinion of Ms. Gabrynowicz, current case law and government/agency positions represented by the Artemis Accords reflect Mr. Garriot's claim. It may have been an untested hypothetical at the time, but in the current political climate it is finding support by a…
I really hope this won't become reality in the mind of confrontation and being first to claim land, because this will mean, spamming the moon surface with cheap "scientific" equipment to claim lots of land. I mean, what is the bar here for lander? Is it enough to have a flag with it? Then you can have a flag inside a steel cannon ball and shoot many of them across the lunar landscape.
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a fun anecdote this is one of the very few things that was completely faked in "The Martian" - book and movie alike, which is otherwise a hard sci-fi book. I think it's quite telling when your instigator for a disaster scenario on Mars has to be faked! Well at least intentionally faked. It turns out Martian regolith/soil is also much more moist than expected so getting water will be relatively easy, but at the tim…
> The Martian The thin atmosphere bit is acknowledged by the author, you can watch his talk here around 32:35: I just want to be as accurate as I possibly could. There are a few places that are inaccurate. The biggest place that's inaccurate is right at the beginning. Don't tell anybody, but if you're in a dust storm on Mars, you're not even going to feel it. Mars' atmosphere is less than 1% of Earth's. So a 150 kilo…
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#175For anyone interested in the structure of the software that ran Ingenuity (and some hardware design aspects, such as the use of commercial off-the-shelve parts), there is an awesome and critically underwatched video of Timothy Canham explaining everything: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQu9m4MG5Gc&t=7s
I always thought it was crazy that NASA uses a FPGA/microcontroller/cell phone SOC setup, which makes total sense to me, but mundane industrial things like the traffic light at an intersection needs a giant cabinet with shelves of crazy seimens controllers, it feels like such overkill in comparison, you can see them on this channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udpB-en9KKM . The guy is always arguing with the comme…
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#176Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#177For some reason, this kind of news always makes me sad. Like emotionally. Probably because of this https://xkcd.com/695/ NASA has done an effective job at connecting with regular people. Goes to show, how even something as small as naming something differently makes a big shift in the mindset.
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
You mean that place that smells of burnt metal and is full of hard radiation? Surface of Mars is definitely more hospitable.
> Overall, astronauts often compare the smell of space to "hot metal, burnt meat, burnt cakes, spent gunpowder and welding of metal," according to Steve Pearce, a biochemist and CEO of Omega Ingredients, who combed through astronaut interviews to help him craft a NASA-commissioned scent: https://www.livescience.com/space/what-does-space-smell-like Guess I'm one of today's 10,000.
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#179I just interned at the NASA office (at Ames) that designed large chunks of and did a lot of flight planning / analysis for Ingenuity. It had some really awesome people behind it and its success inspired a number of new Mars rotorcraft missions (rotorcraft will be an integral part of Mars Sample Return). Flight is going to be a huge part of future solar system exploration efforts and Ingenuity paved the way. o7
Isn't Mars Sample Return pretty much dead at this point?
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#180Damage to the blade tip is apparent in the shadow. But I would try one more flight just to see how it fares in such conditions, if it can be corrected in software etc.