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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday January 28 2021, @03:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the flying-drones-on-Mars dept.

NASA is sending a helicopter to Mars, but what for?:

NASA's mission to send another rover to Mars is set to culminate in a successful landing on February 18, 2021, but that's not all the agency is sending to the Red Planet.

The Perseverance rover – once it lands next month – will begin scouring a section of Mars that astronomers believe could have hosted and supported microbial life in the past.

But a second passenger aboard the lander vehicle will be meant to do something else entirely.

The Mars Helicopter – also known as Ingenuity – will deploy alongside the rover, and will be NASA's attempt at trying to achieve successful controlled flight on Mars for the very first time.

Ingenuity weighs only four pounds, and is described as a "small, but mighty passenger". Though it has a fuselage (main body) no bigger than a tissue box, it's supposedly strong enough to brave the harsh weather conditions on the planet during flight.

Started as a wishful project about six years ago, the engineers behind Ingenuity understood that while it was theoretically possible to fly in Mars' super-thin atmosphere, there was no real conviction that they'd be able to build a vehicle that could fly, communicate, and survive on its own on Mars.

But after rounds of research and testing, the team have managed to create a flying vehicle that has so far survived all tests emulating Mars' environment, and the next step is to make it fly on the Red Planet for real.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:27PM (6 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:27PM (#1106136) Journal

    The word "helicopter" implies a vehicle weighing at least half a ton, with one or more seats for a human to sit in, and some load carrying capacity in addition to that human.

    The word "drone" seems more fitting, in that we see the word routinely used to refer to small vehicles, weighing only grams or ounces in many cases. Many such vehicles carry nothing more than a miniature camera.

    Despite my word preference, this is as cool as cool can be, until we put people on Mars!

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:43PM (2 children)

    by looorg (578) on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:43PM (#1106150)

    I was wondering along those lines. When I heard helicopter I imagined it being something future cosmonauts would ride around in. Not being the size of a tissue box. Does not even look much like a helicopter to me from the images, unless you consider what Da Vinci drew in his notebooks a helicopter and not an air-screw or something. So from the looks in the image I would say it's more of a drone then a helicopter. At 3:08 in the movie clip you can see it fly (or if its some kind of rendering I don't really know). Still thinking it's a drone from the looks of it and how it flies -- it's a box with four "legs" and two rotors on top. It looks more like it swings and dances around in the air, not really hovering like a 'copter. Shouldn't it have had a tail with another rotor in it to? Like most helicopters? But I guess these are smart people at NASA that created it and they should know but still Helicopter sounds wrong.

    I guess this is what Elon will use to shuttle and carry his drinks as he walks around as Emperor of Mars -- so his cocktails are shaken, not stirred.

    • (Score: 2) by looorg on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:46PM

      by looorg (578) on Thursday January 28 2021, @04:46PM (#1106154)

      (edit) Apparently I can't count at a glance, three rotors not two.

    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday January 29 2021, @05:03PM

      by Freeman (732) on Friday January 29 2021, @05:03PM (#1106634) Journal

      Drone would have been a bit more helpful, but then people would have been thinking "quadcopter". Helicopter drone, might have been a better description.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @09:19PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 28 2021, @09:19PM (#1106289)

    The word "helicopter" implies a vehicle weighing at least half a ton, with one or more seats for a human to sit in,

    No, it doesn't, you idiot, Runaway! Shut up, and sit down. Drones carry missiles for use in extra-judicial targeted killings.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday January 28 2021, @09:47PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday January 28 2021, @09:47PM (#1106299) Journal

      Dumbass - drones are going to carry your Amazon purchases to your house, and drop them down the chimney so that you die in your sleep of carbon monoxide poisoning.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Freeman on Friday January 29 2021, @04:59PM

    by Freeman (732) on Friday January 29 2021, @04:59PM (#1106633) Journal

    The most standard version of the vehicle definitely brings that to mind, but there are deviations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpack_helicopter [wikipedia.org].

    --
    Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"