NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars

Re:NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars by nortlov on Sunday January 21, 2024 @11:04AM (#39079641)

In a thin atmosphere, lifting a heavier payload needs bigger rotors or increased RPM, which increases power demands and structural stress. The challenge is to keep the vehicle light enough to fly while also making it sturdy enough to carry the payload and survive environments.

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Re:NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars by D13Fd on Sunday January 21, 2024 @12:05PM (#39080264)

Why can’t “more rotors” be another solution?

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Re:NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars by swells34 on Sunday January 21, 2024 @12:27PM (#39080463)

This is what I'm thinking too. A number of posts above talked about physical limits based on speed of sound and rotor length. Cool, so add two rotors, or four.

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Re:NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars by nortlov on Sunday January 21, 2024 @01:15PM (#39081008)

For sure, that’s another way to decompose “bigger rotors”. It would probably be appropriate to dive into a conversation about Ingenuity’s design goals, requirements, and the trades performed to end up with what they got.

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Re:NASA regains contact with mini-helicopter on Mars by mmbop on Sunday January 21, 2024 @11:14AM (#39079777)

Ok - this makes sense to me. Also taken into account the context that anything going to space needs to be light at this point in time. Hopefully we don’t have that restriction forever :)

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