Helicopter on Mars

Wait a second.  I thought the atmosphere on Mars was too thin to sustain wind damage (only 1% as dense as Earth's) so wouldn't that preclude any kind of heavier-than-air flight?

The Mars helicopter is en route.

NASA Just Powered Up Its Mars Helicopter

Ten bucks says it doesn't get off Mars' surface.

I'm not even confident it will get on to Mars' surface.

Well, it has arrived.

Unreal Video of Perseverance Landing on Mars Will Take Your Breath Away

Quote :

The Ingenuity helicopter—currently attached to the rover’s belly—has also checked in, and it managed to successfully re-charge its batteries. Deploying the helicopter will be among Perseverance’s first tasks, which should happen a couple of months from now.

Yeah, I still got ten bucks says it never gets off the ground.

Astonishing hi-res photos from Mars though. Truly astonishing. Doesn't look like a very welcoming place though.

You think Mars looks bleak? Try Venus. 900F, sulphuric acid for an atmosphere, yuck.



This is the only decent picture of the Venusian surface. A Russian probe made it down and took several pictures, with rapidly decreasing quality, before failing altogether.

On the flip side, acreage is cheap

Mostly it just has to get in the air, but that's enough to confound Noco.

NASA Reveals Its Plan for First Helicopter Flight on Mars

Ten bucks.

Today the Ingenuity helicopter was dropped down from the belly of the Perseverance, to the surface of Mars.  Perseverance drove a ways away to observe.



Soon the rotors will spin up.

Dust clouds will rise.

And the Ingenuity will stay firmly rooted on Martian soil.  It weighs only 4 lbs, but the Martian atmosphere is 1/100 as dense as the Earth's, meaning the rotors are effectively being asked to raise 400 pounds.

I don't think it'll happen.

Correction: Gravity on Mars is 38% of that on Earth. Therefore, instead of 400 pounds the drone weighs 152 pounds on Mars.

I still think that's probably beyond the little helicopter's lifting power, by about 145 pounds.

Ingenuity spun up its rotors today.

No dust clouds resulted.

The maiden flight has been postponed to Wednesday.. Do you suppose they know something we don't?

Your ten dollars can rest easy for a while.

NASA now knows what went wrong with its Mars helicopter

Quote :

In a new update, NASA says that it has things pretty much figured out and will be able to correct the error with a simple software update. That’s the good news, but there is also some bad news.

Quote :

Once the software is built, the update will be sent to the helicopter, at which point a number of other system checks have to be performed. Once booted up on the new software, the helicopter will need to spend several Martian days just chilling out before it can even begin its flight test. That means the tentative “no earlier than” date of this coming Thursday is out the window, and it may be a week or even several weeks before NASA feels comfortable taking the helicopter for a spin.

I owe ten bucks to somebody.

Clouds on Mars. Hudda thunk.
https://www.engadget.com/nasa-curiosity-rover-cloud-photos-202447024.html

Cool 360º interactive with sound.
https://nerdist.com/article/perseverance-highlights-mars-360-degree-video/

More sounds from Mars.
https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/multimedia/audio/

Alas, no LGMs going "Greetings, Earthling. Parking is $10/day."