Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
by MichaelZuo on Tuesday August 10, 2021 @10:10PM
(#28137136)
The rotors would have to be massive to lift 30kg, that may be a stumbling block as it’ll require folding and so on.
Seems like it would need a lander at least for recharging right?
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Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
by arhpreston on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @12:16PM
(#28143937)
If you're interested in the details of what goes in to developing rotors for a helicopter for an atmosphere we've never built in before you should check out this talk:
https://doi.org/10.52843/47ly7q
Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
by MichaelZuo on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @04:38PM
(#28147439)
Thanks! In scaling up the fragility of the material seems very likely to be a big factor, cube-square law and so on. I wonder if there’ll be physical testing of proposed designs, are there even near-vacuum wind tunnels?
Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
by arhpreston on Friday August 13, 2021 @10:28AM
(#28169284)
A lot of that talk compares theoretical results with experiments in a low-pressure wind tunnel (see e.g., the slide at this point https://cassyni.com/events/6GYLBKG5pBd4su8dm9A9FB?t=255.0s for a reference).
It's quite a simplistic (2d) setup however. I'm not aware of any more complex experiments.
Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
by BotJunkie on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @12:02AM
(#28137876)
You can see how the whole thing would fold up in the linked article, there's an image from the white paper that shows MSH fitting into the same size aeroshell Mars Pathfinder used. It would run on solar power and recharge itself, just like Ingenuity.
Re:JPL's Plan for the Next Mars Helicopter
by MichaelZuo on Wednesday August 11, 2021 @10:48AM
(#28142667)
Thanks, for some reason I had a brain fart and thought it’s one giant rotor.