They should auction it off. For pickup only, of course. I'd like to own the first helicopter on Mars.
Show HN: This website is served from a helicopter on Mars
42 minute delay or interplanetary hug of death?
Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
91–100 of 210 posts
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#92Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#93Damage 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.
That is just genius. NASA is wasting all this money on engineers when they could just ask HN.
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#94They should auction it off. For pickup only, of course. I'd like to own the first helicopter on Mars.
Hasselblad liked to advertise that there were a couple free ones on the moon, you just had to pick them up. To save weight for more sample returns, the Apollo astronauts did the logical thing and kept the film, but chucked the cameras out on the moon.
They chucked a lot of stuff--anything intended for surface use went out the airlock. The cost per pound to bring something back from the moon was higher than the cost per pound of basically anything they brought.
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#95Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 'o' is a head and the '7' is an arm giving a salute.
Here, let me help you with that... O7 /| Λ
That's ridiculous, nobody swims up a waterfall
(but actually, thanks for the illustration... my dad was in the military but apparently long enough ago that I entirely missed this)
Edit: oh! You used a capital O rather than a little one! That makes loads of difference... the "hand" placement in o7 is way over the forehead, while O7 (or is it 07? either way) is much closer to a proper salute! Perhaps the military culture hasn't entirely worn off after all...
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#97Damage 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.
To fly Ingenuity has to spin it's propellers very quickly due to the lower atmospheric density compared to Earth and that's a large chunk taken out of the blade. We can already guess what'll happen without testing it and it'll be some variation of the craft shaking itself to pieces and throwing debris all over that chunk of Mars. Better to just let it sit than toss all sorts of trash across the surface that could hit…
Yup. I get the impression this was a forced landing, it put itself down on too steep a slope and caused a rotor strike. Helicopters do not like unbalanced rotors! And think of what happens if it fails at speed: The rotors are 4' across, so 2' from tip to hub. 2,400 rpm for the low end of flight speed. That's 40 rotations per second, the average speed of a rotor is therefore 40 rps * 2' * (2 * pi {path traced by the rotor}) / 2 {for the midpoint of the rotor} = 251 feet per second = 172 miles per hour. A rotor yeeted at 172 miles per hour will go quite a ways on Mars (especially since it's on a slope--it could be lobbed at an angle, not merely flat) and there's a very, very expensive spacecraft nearby. (And it must be nearby--Ingenuity can't talk to Earth. You can't back off to a safe distance and try it.)
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#98Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
> o7 I never came across this emoticon, but with what you wrote, its meaning became clear immediately. It's perfect.
Same, I thought I was terminally online but I've never seen this before.
Oh, God, these comments may be the trigger to my mid-life crisis.
Re: Due to blade damage, Mars Helicopter Ingenuity will not fly again
#100Was the singular focus on the Wright Brothers' contributions to flight and ingenuity a fair one? I had thought there was some shift in the Wright Brothers' attribution to flight in general. It seemed like better recognition of the contributions by Samuel Langley and Glenn Curtiss' to flight technology were along with acknowledgement of the WB's own efforts to boost their legacy might have checked a decision to keep p…
Where did they talk about the Wrights? This on the wrong article?