Ingenuity: How the Mars helicopter will fly on another planet

[Judi Lynn]

In a space exploration first, NASA is preparing to deploy a chopper on the Red Planet. Flying in a fraction of Earth’s gravity, it should be a sight to behold.

By Paul Parsons

17th June, 2020 at 08:00

Whether disrupting air traffic, returning glorious vistas of Earth from above, or just spying on the neighbours (if that’s your thing), drones have become a familiar sight in our skies. Now, for the first time, the US space agency NASA is poised to fly a drone-like helicopter in the atmosphere of another planet.

The craft, named Ingenuity, will hitch a ride to the Red Planet aboard the one-tonne Perseverance lander, NASA’s latest wheeled robotic rover mission to drive across the planet’s rugged surface. Perseverance will launch from Earth this summer, with touchdown on Mars scheduled for 18 February 2021.

Flying in the alien atmosphere of another world is a feat that poses a unique set of engineering challenges and yet, if this small technology test mission is successful, it will furnish scientists with a new and highly effective way to explore the planets and moons of our Solar System. That’s because flying is a much faster way to get around than ground roving.

Aircraft can gather aerial imagery that’s much sharper than pictures returned by spacecraft. They can also serve as scouts to identify potential targets for ground-based rover vehicles, and they can even gather samples and bring them back to a central lander station for analysis.

More:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/ingenuity-how-the-mars-helicopter-will-fly-on-another-planet/?utm_source=Browser&utm_medium=Web_Push_Notifications&utm_campaign=space

[kysrsoze]

1. Interesting, but won't it be shredded in Mars' fierce windstorms? It's not like they have a...

weather prediction service there.

[whopis01]

2. There are not any fierce windstorms on Mars.

Despite what stories like "The Martian" would have you believe, no Martian storm is going to shred any equipment.

While the wind speed may get up to something substantial, like around 60 mph, the thin Martian atmosphere greatly reduces the force of these winds. With only about 1% of the density of Earth's atmosphere that 60 mph Martian wind would feel about the equivalent of a 6 mph breeze here.

[Bayard]

3. Okay,

Now that's way cool. Can't wait for the pics.