Drone To Mars

African wildlife · Feb 17, 2021

NEWSFLASH: MAA bans Ingenuity from taking off. No interplanetary agreement has yet been reached between the FAA and the MAA. The FAA have agreed "in principle" to prioritise the FAA/MAA bi-planetary agreement ahead of giving SpaceX's SN10 permission for its test flight.

Lets Fly · Feb 17, 2021

Correction, we land 02/18/21, 3:55 PM EST.

JMMath · Feb 17, 2021

Lets Fly said:
I think we will find that this planet is far from dead.

I think IF any humans ever get there alive...... they will die there

Lets Fly · Feb 17, 2021

JMMath said:
I think IF any humans ever get there alive...... they will die there

Possibly, how many died coming from Europe to the US? Elon Musk had about 100,000 sign up to go knowing it would be a one way trip. Let's hope it's not.

passedpawn · Feb 18, 2021

African wildlife · Feb 18, 2021

JMMath said:
I think IF any humans ever get there alive...... they will die there

I'm old enough to remember that - at the beginning of the Apollo moon missions - a lot of people said we'd never succeed because "God won't allow us to knock holes in Heaven". This was even mentioned on the BBC, when all we had was black and white television sets. As the missions progressed, "Heaven" was moved further back from allegedly being somewhere just above our planet - and then no longer mentioned.

So many people have laughed at Elon Musk's claims over the past years, but SpaceX (plus Tesla and The Boring Company) have gone on to prove they can and do succeed. The effort being put into Starship is huge and it's increasing week after week, month after month. Last year, SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches matched the considerable output of the Chinese for the first time.

I knew Ed Mitchell (sixth man to walk on the moon). Ed was fond of saying that his great grandparents had trekked across America in a wagon train, yet he had travelled to the moon and back in a rocket - just a hundred years later. We're obviously just at the very beginning of space exploration, but we'll definitely get humans to Mars and back in the next 10-15 years thanks to the "can do" attitude of SpaceX.

My guess is that the first Starship will make the journey to Mars, unmanned, possibly as soon as late 2024 or more likely at the end of 2026. It (or they) will likely remain on Mas with cargo required to start establishing a base, or else with fuel for a later return trip if it can be stored for that length of time.

After the two rather heavy landings of Starships SN8 and SN9 - both of which did accurately hit the landing pad - it's just a question of "when", rather than "if", we'll see an upright softer landing. SN5 and SN6 previously nailed their landings, albeit without having to recover from the pioneering belly-flop manoeuvre.

anotherlab · Feb 18, 2021

Lets Fly said:
Possibly, how many died coming from Europe to the US? Elon Musk had about 100,000 sign up to go knowing it would be a one way trip. Let's hope it's not.

Except when the Europeans came over, they came to a land where they could breathe, locate freshwater, hunt, and grow their own food. Mars is a lifeless rock without a breathable atmosphere, no magnetic field to block radiation and an average temperature of -80 F.

Barbara · Feb 18, 2021

JMMath said:
I think IF any humans ever get there alive...... they will die there

I agree, I believe it will be a one way trip. Not that that will stop people from going..

Lets Fly · Feb 18, 2021

anotherlab said:
Except when the Europeans came over, they came to a land where they could breathe, locate freshwater, hunt, and grow their own food. Mars is a lifeless rock without a breathable atmosphere, no magnetic field to block radiation and an average temperature of -80 F.

Yes, and yet a lot of them died. We have lived now in space (some) for over a year with the outside temperature at -250 degrees in the shade and +250 in the sun with our own food water and air supplied. Mars temperature can reach 68 degrees F as a high on the equator, and a low of -158.Supply ships will be in place to support the astronauts.
But this post is about the drone flying for the first time on another planet, and that's what I'm looking forward to. As far as lifeless, that's to be seen.

African wildlife · Feb 18, 2021

Ingenuity is just the very first step. The future of taking drones to explore Mars - or even to another planet, such as searching for microbial life in the clouds of Venus - will be exciting. We all know that the leading military powers are investing heavily in drone technology. There will be spin-offs from this, including better drones for space exploration.

The size and weight of a drone that needs to be part of a space vehicle or payload is a crucial factor - at least, until SpaceX's Starship is fully operational (and, even then, every kilo or lb will have to be justified). The fact that DJI are making smaller and lighter drones is a clear sign of things to come.

It probably won't be far off that we'll be anticipating the landing of a more stationary lander, equipped with one or more drones, each capable of flying and taking/drilling for soil/rock samples, then returning them to the lander for analysis. This might prove better than a rover.

And that's without getting into the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and questions of "Is it a drone? Or is it a probe or nano spacecraft?"

Could we be being watched from afar via tiny probes? If there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 habitable planets out there in the observable Universe, - and we're relative newcomers in terms of intelligent life (allegedly intelligent - please listen to the last line of Monty Python's Galaxy Song) - the mind boggles at what might be realistically possible.

Lets Fly · Feb 18, 2021

African wildlife said:
Ingenuity is just the very first step. The future of taking drones to explore Mars - or even to another planet, such as searching for microbial life in the clouds of Venus - will be exciting. We all know that the leading military powers are investing heavily in drone technology. There will be spin-offs from this, including better drones for space exploration.

The size and weight of a drone that needs to be part of a space vehicle or payload is a crucial factor - at least, until SpaceX's Starship is fully operational (and, even then, every kilo or lb will have to be justified). The fact that DJI are making smaller and lighter drones is a clear sign of things to come.

It probably won't be far off that we'll be anticipating the landing of a more stationary lander, equipped with one or more drones, each capable of flying and taking/drilling for soil/rock samples, then returning them to the lander for analysis. This might prove better than a rover.

And that's without getting into the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and questions of "Is it a drone? Or is it a probe or nano spacecraft?"

Could we be being watched from afar via tiny probes? If there are 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 habitable planets out there in the observable Universe, - and we're relative newcomers in terms of intelligent life (allegedly intelligent - please listen to the last line of Monty Python's Galaxy Song) - the mind boggles at what might be realistically possible.

I agree, and your last paragraph, a definite possibility. Keep the cameras rolling on our drones.

Lets Fly · Feb 18, 2021

WE did it, first two images in. There is still a lens dust cover on, you can see the dust it turned up in the background. Can't wait for the drone.

SkyeHigh · Feb 19, 2021

Darn, forgot to take the cover off again!!

Slade · Feb 20, 2021

Slade said:
A big First Step. I think drones will be huge when **** sapiens stomp around on that dead planet.

So we’re now just “sapient?” Really stupid people on this forum.

Lets Fly · Feb 20, 2021

Slade said:
So we’re now just “sapient?” Really stupid people on this forum.

sa·pi·ent
/ˈsāpēənt/
Learn to pronounce

adjective

1.
FORMAL
wise, or attempting to appear wise.
"members of the female quarter were more sapient but no less savage than the others"
2.
relating to the human species ( **** sapiens ).
"our sapient ancestors of 40,000 years ago"

noun

a human of the species **** sapiens.
(You answered your own post? Whats your point?)
What was removed?

Lets Fly · Feb 20, 2021

Got it.

Lets Fly · Apr 3, 2021

We are getting ready to fly. This photo shows the drone still hanging from mother ship.
The earliest it will fly is April 8th.

Lets Fly · Apr 4, 2021

Look at (blow up) the very bottom left corner of the photo. If that doesn't look like a bone fossil, ahh wishful thinking.

Hauptmann · Apr 4, 2021

I wrote to NASA. Told them to put on a "Do NOT Press RTH!" sign.

Lets Fly · Apr 19, 2021

They did it first drone flight on another planet. Altimeter data indicate Ingenuity climbed to its prescribed maximum altitude of 10 feet (3 meters) and maintained a stable hover for 30 seconds. It then descended, touching back down on the surface of Mars after logging a total of 39.1 seconds of flight. More flights to come.