INGENUITY Rotor Copter on Mars

[SkyeHigh]

Just a bit more on what’s in Ingenuity:

How NASA Designed a Helicopter That Could Fly Autonomously on Mars

The Perseverance rover's Mars Helicopter (Ingenuity) will take off, navigate, and land on Mars without human intervention

spectrum.ieee.org

 

[Gagey52]

Interesting SkyeHigh, still no photos back from Mars yet?
Regards

 

[SkyeHigh]

They’re starting to post them:

All Mars Resources - NASA Science

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire, all conveniently accessible in one place.

mars.nasa.gov

 

[justcruisin]

Drone gets dropped this week

 

[TTP]

Looking for links to news about Ingenuity after landing on Feb 18, 2021 on the planet Mars.

The window for the scheduled flights is set to 30 days, what happened now?

 

[SkyeHigh]

Images being posted here:

All Mars Resources - NASA Science

Explore this collection of Mars images, videos, resources, PDFs, and toolkits. Discover valuable content designed to inform, educate, and inspire, all conveniently accessible in one place.

mars.nasa.gov

More information here:

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover - NASA Science

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover seeks signs of ancient life and collects samples of rock and regolith for possible Earth return.

mars.nasa.gov

 

[franklinskite]

That Mars drone has to be over 400 feet high. Visual line of sight flying is for everyone‘s safety, even little green men. The FAA should come down hard on these NASA guys.

 

[SkyeHigh]

Ingenuity Update

Mars: News & Features - NASA Science

Get the latest news releases, features, findings, and stories about the missions on Mars.

mars.nasa.gov

 

[CactusJackSlade]

Next step is complete!

Ingenuity Goes Vertical - NASA Science

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter extends vertically into place after being rotated outward from its horizontal position on the belly of the Perseverance rover on March 29, 2021.

mars.nasa.gov

 

[CactusJackSlade]

For those who don't know, this coaxial 'copter they designed would be the equivalent of flying a helicopter here on earth at an altitude of 52,100 feet. The current world record of a (manned) helicopter flight is 42,500 feet. I think this is a pretty great engineering feat! I am hopeful it works and flys as planned.

Just FYI:

"On June 21, 1972, Jean Boulet of France piloted an Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama helicopter to a (then) absolute altitude record of 40,814 feet (12,440 m).[60] At that extreme altitude, the engine flamed out and Boulet had to land the helicopter by breaking another record: the longest successful autorotation in history.[61] The helicopter was stripped of all unnecessary equipment prior to the flight to minimize weight, and the pilot breathed supplemental oxygen.

The record was finally broken on March 23, 2002 by Fred North. North achieved an altitude of 42,500 feet (12,954 m) in a Eurocopter AS350 B2."

 

[DeadStick]

Im impressed that they engineered such a low weight rotor hub that absorbs the forces from a rotor that size spinning at such speeds
I guess the rotors themselves must be very light weight and extremely well balanced

 

[SkyeHigh]

Ingenuity is now free and being readied for flight on the 11th of April.

NASA Invites Public to Take Flight With Ingenuity Mars Helicopter - NASA

Editor’s Note: On April 10, NASA announced that based on data from the Ingenuity Mars helicopter that came in late on April 9, the agency has chosen

mars.nasa.gov

 

[rehkram]

First spin-up test:

Ingenuity Begins to Spin Its Blades - NASA Science

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter does a slow spin test of its blades, on April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This image was captured by the Navigation Cameras on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

mars.nasa.gov

 

[icecoldgin]

First spin-up test:

Ingenuity Begins to Spin Its Blades - NASA Science

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter does a slow spin test of its blades, on April 8, 2021, the 48th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. This image was captured by the Navigation Cameras on NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.

mars.nasa.gov

"The home point has been updated. Please check it on the map"

?

 

[Alex Baxter]

I think they are limited to max RPM on Mars way more then on Earth. Mars atmosphere is above 90% CO2, low density and low temperature will results in lower speed of sound, by quite a lot. I’m surprised by the shape of those blades, they would fly on earth for sure but in Mars atmosphere? Air flow, separation ,Reynolds number, lifting efficiency, lifting force are all completely different from what we have on Earth. Imagine flying anything with props at altitude 36-37km??? in -90C Balloons have a hard time to go that high.

Rectangular solar panel is just very bizarre, I wonder why it is not round? It looks strange and it will interfere with harmonics every rotation, makes no sense. Anyone has theory for it?

Mavic Mini prop at hover 12000rpm mavic pro 4000-5000, props are limited by velocity of the tip, generally everyone wants to keep it below speed of sound.

Ok I will be first to call it: I would be surprised this thing will fly on Mars, it would have to spin much faster than 3000 RMP to create enough trust. Any prop experts?

Do you think they guessed how to make a Mars suitable drone? I can hear NASA now, 'ah well that didn't work, bring it back and we'll try different props, oh, hang on....'

 

[SkyeHigh]

Are you referring to this single test video available on youtube? Looks like my drone light

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It seems they only did fluid dynamics and extensive "proof of concept" testing, Imagine atmosphere 100 times less dense with completely different dynamic, yet the props looks quite similar to "earth" props

as you said, I would also expect some "real life testing" like high altitude flight from balloon at 35km+ that would be cool to watch, or flight in extreme cold at -90C, How small drone like theirs holds batteries warm over night? little solar panel on the top would not be enough to warm it up.

I have watch landing video and it seems they added a lot of drama and totally no science. Looks like theater for 10years olds.
Crane landing.... Elon has hard time controlling 3 engines, those boys control like 8 jets in atmosphere only 1% of earth, it would take a lot of fuel to stop this thing.

I remember few years back jump from high altitude, jumper crossed speed of sound at terminal velocity, On Mars air is still thiner than during that jump...
Whatever they have done looks very fake, yes I'm sceptical especially they do not provide any scientific data, just one guy breathing hard to show he is is very excited (that thing was creepy), now we will wait for 3 days for telemetry data.... when signal takes 4.5-20min to travel...

Their drone initial cost was 25 Millions withlast number 85M so not that expensive after all.

And you still think all this is fake despite a successful landing on Mars, Ingenuity deployed and set to fly on Sunday?

 

[SkyeHigh]

Do you think they guessed how to make a Mars suitable drone? I can hear NASA now, 'ah well that didn't work, bring it back and we'll try different props, oh, hang on....'

Let's hope MAS weren't involved with these blades.

 

[CactusJackSlade]

My concern as it sits patiently waiting to fully charge up and get through the testing phases would be the threat of one of those dust devils they have on Mars... and potentially tipping it over before it's maiden flight.

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[icecoldgin]

Uh oh: NASA delays Mars mini-helicopter Ingenuity's flight for tech check

"Motor unable to rotate. Check motor (Code: 30142)" ?

 

[rehkram]

My concern would be the dust storm that will be stirred up by the rotors turning fast enough to get off the ground in the thin martian atmosphere. Likewise on landing.

But I'm sure that consideration has kept a lot of Ingenuity project engineers awake at night so I'm not gonna worry about it, just want to see the project succeed.