First flight on another planet
 

NASA have successfully flown their helicopter on Mars.

This is the first time that a man-made object has flown on another planet, The helicopter called Ingenuity has a piece of material from the Wright Brother first aircraft.

https://news.sky.com/story/nasas-ing...-mars-12280166

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56799755

Re: First flight on another planet
 

Quite an achievement given how thin the atmosphere is on Mars.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

I think they have to spin the rotors insanely fast to get the lift they need. All in all an absolute marvel of engineering. Great to see some actual video from the surface as well ... they don’t normally bother trying to put video cameras on their rovers as nothing moves fast enough to be worth the effort.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

Yes, great footage of the Arizona desert....................only joking!

Re: First flight on another planet
 

they said the atmosphere is similar to the Top of Everest,

Re: First flight on another planet
 

It's a lot thinner than that. The atmospheric pressue on Mars is about 1% of that at sea level here and mostly carbon dioxide. IIRC everest is about 30%

Re: First flight on another planet
 

One Nasa Engineer I listened to said that the atmosphere on Mars isn't thick enough to be much help when flying, but is too thick to ignore.

Amazing achievement.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

Re: First flight on another planet
 

Re: First flight on another planet
 

I didn't think they'd go in unprepared. That little copter would have gone through a lot of earth bound testing at every stage, from modelling the initial design to flying the built craft.

Still cool though.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

Maybe in the future, larger ones could be used to scatter seeds (cacti ? ) and see if they grow?

Might need bigger ones for bags of compost though :D

Re: First flight on another planet
 

:clap:I love it.


They would have done a lot of simulation hours on a computer.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

They did real tests, in a vacuum chamber.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

it impressive as seen as I can't control my kids drone from 6ft away.

Re: First flight on another planet
 

Maybe you're too close . . . try standing much much further away? :D


edit:
Nasa's rover makes breathable oxygen on Mars
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56844601

Things are looking very impressive . . they'll be planting forests next. How long before man spends a week there?