Just don't let ERCOT be in charge of the power.boulderaggie said:
You guys just wait. This is a stepping stone. One day we'll develop ORBITING craft that will be equipped with all kinds of instrumentation like high resolution cameras, radio detection and ranging (Ra.D.A.R. for short), and on and on. The future's gonna be a gas!
Mars helicopter
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75 Replies |
Last: 2 yr ago by Bradley.Kohr.II
I could have saved you 80 million and just taken a drone somewhere in Martin County and it would have looked the same.
We're eventually going to throw enough matter into space to where we will finally be light enough to get sucked into the sun.
hot enough to kill two Martians45-70Ag said:Aggie Hunter said:
It's a Tesla........and it drives itself!!!
How hot can a lithium fire burn on Mars?
Deplorable Neanderthal Clinger
To be fair. Have you seen all the other **** we spend money on. In light of that, it seems pretty reasonable.SWC Ag said:You and OP don't seem to realize these are just test flights to check systems before the real flights begin.CSTXAg92 said:
Here's a video... $85M for this seems... well, unbelievable.
Do people really think they sent a drone to Mars to fly 10 feet up and down? Good lord.
Deplorable Neanderthal Clinger
I'm no physics major, but, I think if we get lighter, we will fly away from the sun.DatTallArchitect said:
We're eventually going to throw enough matter into space to where we will finally be light enough to get sucked into the sun.
No, more weight would have us go away from the sun. As it requires the sun's gravity to have more force to keep us in. As we get lighter we get sucked further in. Neither case is good for us.malenurse said:I'm no physics major, but, I think if we get lighter, we will fly away from the sun.DatTallArchitect said:
We're eventually going to throw enough matter into space to where we will finally be light enough to get sucked into the sun.
I told you I wasn't a physics major...
The Fife said:
I agree, this is no simple drone. It has to be fully autonomous, operate in extreme cold, and fly in an atmosphere with 1% the density of what it is on earth. It's the equivalent of going 30,000 higher than any helicopter has ever gone before.
Making even more complex, it's got 40% of the earth's gravity, so there's no way to test the thing on earth.
CSTXAg92 said:
It's a collaboration with Yeti.
Does Luicci have a Mars Helicopter hat?
The Fife said:dodger02 said:And yet, think of all the **** we can't get right in our workplaces right now.The Fife said:
I agree, this is no simple drone. It has to be fully autonomous, operate in extreme cold, and fly in an atmosphere with 1% the density of what it is on earth. It's the equivalent of going 30,000 higher than any helicopter has ever gone before.
Someone just flew a goddamed helicopter on Mars from Houston and yet I can't reliably send an email to all of my team members at work.
Yep, we were shut down hard along with the city's biggest hospital group because a fiber optic cable was cut in North Carolina. That was a big, expensive mess for someone!
Allscripts EHR then?
Whoops, yeah I forgot about that little detail! The fact that it's able to control itself despite all this is what's amazing to me. When we're all light-minutes away all we can do is sit back and watch what already happened.
And only receives about 50% of the suns radiation. Those solar cells it is using are the smallest, most efficient ones we can produce and Ingenuity (name of drone) is what forced that level of innovation at this time. That is just one of the tech jumps that we will all benefit from once it filters down to the commercial level. Which being gubment funded, there should be no IP restrictions for doing so unless deemed secret for state reasons. Which I don't think is true for this.MGS said:The Fife said:
I agree, this is no simple drone. It has to be fully autonomous, operate in extreme cold, and fly in an atmosphere with 1% the density of what it is on earth. It's the equivalent of going 30,000 higher than any helicopter has ever gone before.
Making even more complex, it's got 40% of the earth's gravity, so there's no way to test the thing on earth.
Ingenuity is a fully autonomous drone bigger than a large lunchbox, four foot diameter rotors, complete processing and flight unit, self powered, built to operate in less than 1% earth atmo pressure and with 50% reduced sunlight and it all still weighs only a smidge over 4 lbs as a complete unit. The main drivers of innovation in the last two generations are miniaturization and electrical/computing efficiency. Ingenuity has taken all those fields to the utmost max and while we may not see the benefits in every day living tomorrow, it IS going to happen. And the materials developed for some of the components are novel. Aero/space engineers are drooling as we speak.
This was worth it.
drmwvr said:
Fun fact that is not getting a lot of press- the helicopter has a small patch of fabric from the Wright Brother's first plane. How cool is that!
https://astronomy.com/news/2021/04/fabric-from-the-original-wright-flyer-takes-flight-on-mars
I know ya'll are probably just being sarcastic, but mass (in our relatively small terms) is irrelevant to our orbit of the sun. It's about orbital velocity vs distance from the sun.DatTallArchitect said:No, more weight would have us go away from the sun. As it requires the sun's gravity to have more force to keep us in. As we get lighter we get sucked further in. Neither case is good for us.malenurse said:I'm no physics major, but, I think if we get lighter, we will fly away from the sun.DatTallArchitect said:
We're eventually going to throw enough matter into space to where we will finally be light enough to get sucked into the sun.
How people can see what we've done in the space program and still go "meh", astounds me. Go outside, find mars in the sky(when you can) and think about what an accomplishment that is.
I think it is pretty astounding on the things that have been done. Having said that I think the only really useful thing for mankind has been satellites.
And thermal blankets, bridge shock absorbers, electric thermometers, and smoke detectors.
Insane amount of $$. But we are the first (that we know of) to put a functioning aircraft on another planet, which is bada$$.
Wonder what the RPMs are on that motor to spin the blades fast enough to hold any kind of elevation with the low ceiling height of that "atmosphere" that is especially low and thins exponentially at just a few feet off the Martian ground? I bet the ceiling of that copter isn't high.
Drone already having problems. 4th flight didn't happen.
4th flight did happen. First attempt canceled. Second attempt was successful.
This is unbelievable.
This should be the moon landing for Gen X'ers.
I still don't believe that what I'm watching is real.
An amazing technical feat.
Whats a human gonna do that a robot can't?
Seriously. It might be a waste for now to focus on manned spaceflight.
We should be thinking HAL 9000 that can control a mothership and robots to interact with the physical world.
Something like robots constructing a solar array to charge themselves.
"Ingenuity is a fully autonomous drone bigger than a large lunchbox"
Dang, thought it would have been at least larger than a George Foreman grill. So disappointed...
Dang, thought it would have been at least larger than a George Foreman grill. So disappointed...
No way this **** is real.
This is some AI/CGI stuff right here.
This is some AI/CGI stuff right here.
DatTallArchitect said:No, more weight would have us go away from the sun. As it requires the sun's gravity to have more force to keep us in. As we get lighter we get sucked further in. Neither case is good for us.malenurse said:I'm no physics major, but, I think if we get lighter, we will fly away from the sun.DatTallArchitect said:
We're eventually going to throw enough matter into space to where we will finally be light enough to get sucked into the sun.
No, he's right. A (much) less massive earth wouldn't fall in because gravity is proportional to the mass of both objects. A less massive earth means the sun's pull is weaker. If momentum is conserved, a less massive Earth speeds up.
We orbit the sun because the speed at which we travel away from it perpendicularly is matched by the speed at which we fall towards it. If the earth travels faster and the force of gravity between us and the sun is less, we fly away.
ETA But also, only things that we launch into space that leave our orbit are going to reduce our mass.
So if we keep launching stuff that escapes our orbit, the Earth will eventually fly away? Oh great -- as if I didn't have enough to worry about already........ABATTBQ11 said:
No, he's right. A (much) less massive earth wouldn't fall in because gravity is proportional to the mass of both objects. A less massive earth means the sun's pull is weaker. If momentum is conserved, a less massive Earth speeds up.
We orbit the sun because the speed at which we travel away from it perpendicularly is matched by the speed at which we fall towards it. If the earth travels faster and the force of gravity between us and the sun is less, we fly away.
ETA But also, only things that we launch into space that leave our orbit are going to reduce our mass.
SWC Ag said:You and OP don't seem to realize these are just test flights to check systems before the real flights begin.CSTXAg92 said:
Here's a video... $85M for this seems... well, unbelievable.
Do people really think they sent a drone to Mars to fly 10 feet up and down? Good lord.
Yes. Ever heard of the F-35?
Actually, launching craft that escape from the Earth is a smart move. It counteracts at least some of the mass Earth accumulates from all the meteors hitting it every day!Caladan said:So if we keep launching stuff that escapes our orbit, the Earth will eventually fly away? Oh great -- as if I didn't have enough to worry about already........ABATTBQ11 said:
No, he's right. A (much) less massive earth wouldn't fall in because gravity is proportional to the mass of both objects. A less massive earth means the sun's pull is weaker. If momentum is conserved, a less massive Earth speeds up.
We orbit the sun because the speed at which we travel away from it perpendicularly is matched by the speed at which we fall towards it. If the earth travels faster and the force of gravity between us and the sun is less, we fly away.
ETA But also, only things that we launch into space that leave our orbit are going to reduce our mass.
What??? Meteors hitting the Earth every day? Now I gotta keep looking up too?labmansid said:Actually, launching craft that escape from the Earth is a smart move. It counteracts at least some of the mass Earth accumulates from all the meteors hitting it every day!Caladan said:So if we keep launching stuff that escapes our orbit, the Earth will eventually fly away? Oh great -- as if I didn't have enough to worry about already........ABATTBQ11 said:
No, he's right. A (much) less massive earth wouldn't fall in because gravity is proportional to the mass of both objects. A less massive earth means the sun's pull is weaker. If momentum is conserved, a less massive Earth speeds up.
We orbit the sun because the speed at which we travel away from it perpendicularly is matched by the speed at which we fall towards it. If the earth travels faster and the force of gravity between us and the sun is less, we fly away.
ETA But also, only things that we launch into space that leave our orbit are going to reduce our mass.
Oh man -- it just never ends............
Caladan said:What??? Meteors hitting the Earth every day? Now I gotta keep looking up too?labmansid said:Actually, launching craft that escape from the Earth is a smart move. It counteracts at least some of the mass Earth accumulates from all the meteors hitting it every day!Caladan said:So if we keep launching stuff that escapes our orbit, the Earth will eventually fly away? Oh great -- as if I didn't have enough to worry about already........ABATTBQ11 said:
No, he's right. A (much) less massive earth wouldn't fall in because gravity is proportional to the mass of both objects. A less massive earth means the sun's pull is weaker. If momentum is conserved, a less massive Earth speeds up.
We orbit the sun because the speed at which we travel away from it perpendicularly is matched by the speed at which we fall towards it. If the earth travels faster and the force of gravity between us and the sun is less, we fly away.
ETA But also, only things that we launch into space that leave our orbit are going to reduce our mass.
Oh man -- it just never ends............
~100-300 metric tons per day. ~30000-100000 metric tons per year.
Charlie Murphy said:
How people can see what we've done in the space program and still go "meh", astounds me. Go outside, find mars in the sky(when you can) and think about what an accomplishment that is.
The "meh" is well deserved given the rate of space accomplishments from the late 1950's through the 1980's. Advancing from propeller airplane's only to walking on the moon in 20 years is awesome. Who would have dreamed that 52 years later instead of the Jetsons, we are wetting ourselves with the headlines of a radio-controlled toy helicopter jacking up 10-feet into the air for a few seconds on a planet that we already landed many probes on for almost 50 years now.
Meh.
mhnatt said:Charlie Murphy said:
How people can see what we've done in the space program and still go "meh", astounds me. Go outside, find mars in the sky(when you can) and think about what an accomplishment that is.
The "meh" is well deserved given the rate of space accomplishments from the late 1950's through the 1980's. Advancing from propeller airplane's only to walking on the moon in 20 years is awesome. Who would have dreamed that 52 years later instead of the Jetsons, we are wetting ourselves with the headlines of a radio-controlled toy helicopter jacking up 10-feet into the air for a few seconds on a planet that we already landed many probes on for almost 50 years now.
Meh.
I don't think you have any idea of the technical challenges this poses. Landing on the moon is child's play compared to Mars. More missions fail than succeed just to land. Operating on Mars can be just as difficult.
Getting an aircraft to fly there is an incredible feat considering that the atmosphere is almost non-existent and the temperature extremes are incredible. This is the equivalent of a "toy" helicopter flying at 110,000ft here on earth and doing it at -80*F. Aircraft on earth struggle at that height because the atmosphere is so thin. On Mars, there's basically nothing for the rotors to push against to generate lift.
There is a lot off engineering to shrink down batteries, motors, processors and everything else because every last but if power is needed to actually make it fly. Batteries and electronics also don't do well when the average temp is -80. Try parking your car in the Arctic winter and see how it does.
It's even more complicated because it isn't radio controlled. It has to fly itself. Completely. There is an 8 minute delay from here to Mars, and another 20+ minutes from the Mars orbiter, which relays data, to the surface. If you flew it from here and had to avoid something or find a new landing spot, you crashed an hour ago. That means takeoff, navigation, and landing have to be controlled by the aircraft. That takes a lot of computing power and sensors that as extra weight.
The Wright brothers only flew 120 feet on their first flight. It was pretty "meh" at the time too, but you crawl before you can walk. No matter what you think, this is a huge deal.
Well said.
Caladan said:So if we keep launching stuff that escapes our orbit, the Earth will eventually fly away? Oh great -- as if I didn't have enough to worry about already........ABATTBQ11 said:
No, he's right. A (much) less massive earth wouldn't fall in because gravity is proportional to the mass of both objects. A less massive earth means the sun's pull is weaker. If momentum is conserved, a less massive Earth speeds up.
We orbit the sun because the speed at which we travel away from it perpendicularly is matched by the speed at which we fall towards it. If the earth travels faster and the force of gravity between us and the sun is less, we fly away.
ETA But also, only things that we launch into space that leave our orbit are going to reduce our mass.
Depends on how you launch/lose mass. Think of it like throwing a baseball in space. You move in the opposite direction of your throw. Do it right and you slow the Earth down.
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