JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter

Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter by dylan604 on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @05:44PM (#28135041)

"You'd shoot a little projectile from the drone that embeds itself in the cliff wall, and then you'd reel it back in with a sample."

Is that what would happen? How does the embed de-embed itself? How does the reeling in not end up pulling the drone closer to the cliff?

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Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter by BotJunkie on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @07:37PM (#28136171)

I asked Bob about this. There are a bunch of options, but one way to do it is that you use a hollow projectile that takes a core sample, and then you just reel back in the core while the rest of the projectile stays in place.

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Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter by dylan604 on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @01:23AM (#28138324)

Wow! Never did I expect that kind of response when I asked a random question on an internet forum. Thanks for the follow up!

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Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter by polynomial on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @06:29PM (#28135535)

mainly, precise tolerance engineering.

ofc we don't already know the exact composition and hardness of said cliff walls, so your question stands.

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