NASA's new Mars Drone

[sidd finch]

This looks to be a pretty cool feat of innovation.

A few months after the Mars 2020 rover has landed, the helicopter will detach and do a few test flights of up to 90 seconds. Those will be the first heavier-than-air flights on another planet — powered flight, in other words, rather than, say, a balloon filled with gaseous hydrogen.

The craft will operate mostly autonomously, since the half-hour round trip for commands would be far too long for an Earth-based pilot to operate it. It has its own solar cells and batteries, plus little landing feet, and will attempt flights of increasing distance from the rover over a 30-day period. It should go about three meters in the air and may eventually get hundreds of meters away from its partner.



full article here: https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/28/mars- ... yptr=yahoo

Sidd

[Dave McElderry]

That's really cool. It's amazing they can get it to fly at all with so little atmosphere. Of course the gravity's a lot lower too.

[TreeTopsRanch]

What if it tips over when landing on a slope?

[sidd finch]

What if it tips over when landing on a slope?

In the words of queen... dum dum dum.... another one bites the dust....

Sidd

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

You sure that it is not a flying beer chiller?

[Dave McElderry]

Wow, the Martians are going to get cold beer delivery before I do?

[sidd finch]

Can hot pizza be far behind... ??

Sidd

[Dave McElderry]

Another perfectly good topic nosedives into the ground.

[sidd finch]

You say beer and we all go crackers....

But on a serious note I look forward to seeing the video once it gets there and starts recording from the air. Because Mars has a lot of dust storms, I wonder how they will adjust for that dust so the drone does not get ruined.

Sidd