'Wright Brothers Moment': NASA To Fly Ingenuity Mars Helicopter in Early April (bbc.com) 19
The US space agency says it expects now to fly the first helicopter on Mars in early April. From a report: The little chopper was carried to the Red Planet by the Perseverance rover, which made its dramatic landing in Jezero Crater just over a month ago. Called Ingenuity, the 1.8kg, twin-rotor aircraft will attempt a series of short hops in Mars' rarefied air. If successful, it would represent something of a "Wright Brothers moment", says Nasa. This is a reference of course to Orville and Wilbur Wright, who in 1903 conducted the historic first heavier-than-air, powered aircraft flight here on Earth. And to mark the connection, the agency revealed that a postage stamp-sized piece of fabric from a wing of the brothers' plane has been taped to Ingenuity.
At the moment, the chopper is still attached to Perseverance, to its belly. A protective covering was released at the weekend and in the coming days the craft will be lowered to the ground. Engineers have identified a 10m by 10m area in Jezero that they're calling the "airfield". This is at one end of a 90m "flight zone", inside which perhaps five sorties will be performed. Perseverance will endeavour to record everything on camera. "We are going to do our very best to capture Ingenuity in flight," said Nasa engineer Farah Alibay. "We're going to be taking images, we're hoping to take video." This will be challenging, she cautioned. Both rover and helicopter function autonomously and carry separate clocks. The timing devices will need to be in sync for the photography to catch the action.
At the moment, the chopper is still attached to Perseverance, to its belly. A protective covering was released at the weekend and in the coming days the craft will be lowered to the ground. Engineers have identified a 10m by 10m area in Jezero that they're calling the "airfield". This is at one end of a 90m "flight zone", inside which perhaps five sorties will be performed. Perseverance will endeavour to record everything on camera. "We are going to do our very best to capture Ingenuity in flight," said Nasa engineer Farah Alibay. "We're going to be taking images, we're hoping to take video." This will be challenging, she cautioned. Both rover and helicopter function autonomously and carry separate clocks. The timing devices will need to be in sync for the photography to catch the action.
Re: Wright Brothers moment? I am confused. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but the brothers did it Wright.
False (Score:4, Insightful)
While this is a respectable achievement it is nowhere near on par with the Wright brothers. If I have to explain to you why, you are too stupid to get it anyway.
Any number of people trained in aerodynamics and mechanical engineering could build this thing. We know the principles of flight already. Motors of sufficient rpm exist. Airfoil properties are well understood. Wright brothers had to come up with wing warping, invent a lightweight engine, figure out that the existing tables on wing lift were wrong etc. not to mention they had to put up with being laughed at, self fund it, and endure all kinds of frustrations and failures.
Re:False (Score:5, Insightful)
It's the first time a device has flown on another planet, that's why it's similar. Symbolically, not technically.
Although there was also a huge amount of new technical expertise required to achieve this. Flying something in 1% of our atmosphere with 1/3rd of our gravity with very restricted weight and power budgets is not something that "any number of people" could just achieve.
Re: False (Score:2)
Really? If this is on the same level as Wright brothers, why is virtually nobody stating that itâ(TM)s impossible? Compare that with the Wright Flyer, the first actual helicopter, jet aircraft, orbital rockets .. poor Robert Goddard was berated in the New York Times for saying space travel could be a thing, breaking the sound barrier, landing on the moon or even SpaceX reusable rockets. Compared to those engineering achievements, literally nobody is saying this helicopter will not take off. If it does
Re: (Score:2)
Their plane wasn't even that advanced in construction. The big thing the Wright Brothers did, INM, was cut the engine weight significantly. It was very crudely-designed, but an aluminum block. It was a 201ci (3.3L) engine making 12hp and weighing only 180lbs. For comparison, a Model T engine from 1908 (and engine technology was moving fast!) was 20hp from 177ci (2.9L), but weighed over 450lbs. Most engines from 1903, even in cars, looked more like the old hit-miss farm engines. The entire Wright Flyer weigh
Re: (Score:2)
Flying something in 1% of our atmosphere with 1/3rd of our gravity with very restricted weight and power budgets is not something that "any number of people" could just achieve.
Why not? The science is all there, you just need to plug in the numbers, maybe do some tests in a simulator and vacuum chamber.
Comparing it to two guys in a shed managing to make a flying craft without close to 100 years of science and technology is the fucking high point of hubris.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
What constitutes a “Wright brothers moment&r (Score:2)
Re:What constitutes a “Wright brothers momen (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
One of the pioneers of self-powered flight took off unassisted in 18th of March, 1907 using a liquid CO2 engine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
So, gasoline powered engines were not a given at that time.
Re:What constitutes a “Wright brothers momen (Score:2)
Using quantum particle physics to achieve quantum particle displacement drive, would do it. Then the one after that, warp drive and faster than gravity travel, that would really do it.
Both technically far greater than the Wright brothers efforts, after all, birds do it, bees do it (but they do no achieve thrust in space just using energy or travel faster than the speed of gravity by warping quantum space).
No extra hype needed. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks, I agree that this is incredibly cool. Annoying that up to this point the thread has been how it's not really a big deal.
Still faster than my remodelling contractors unpac (Score:1)