NASA Is Developing a Mars Helicopter That Could Land Itself From Orbit

Longtime Slashdot reader MattSparkes writes: NASA is working on plans to send another, much larger helicopter to Mars than Ingenuity. The "Chopper" craft would land itself after "screaming into" the planet's atmosphere at speed, before covering several kilometers a day while carrying scientific equipment. It would probably be the most graceful arrival on the red planet of any lander yet.

Maybe be a little more considerate of the locals

[Anonymous Coward]

The "Chopper" craft would land itself after "screaming into" the planet's atmosphere at speed.

And then people wonder why martians never talk to us.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Martians are rocks. We started war with them when we started hitting them with lasers and drills.

screaming!

[tinkerton]

I can identify with the screming into the atmosphere bit, less so with the graceful landing.

Re: screaming!

[50000BTU_barbecue]

"Slightly thinner"? "Relativistic speeds?" Is this sarcasm?

Re: screaming!

[RightwingNutjob]

If you have a good enough clock, a leisurely stroll is relativistic speed.

Re:

[smithmc]

...and anywhere is walking distance if you have the time...

Re:

[Eunomion]

"Relativistic." Ha. Better not be. Millibar CO2 might as well be solid steel.

Re:

[Tablizer]

Science writers shouldn't anthropomorphize robot probes. The probes told me they don't like that.

Re:

[tinkerton]

I imagine the first AI equipped lander screaming and uttering a stream of invective, then going quiet.
And then suddenly "That was great , can I do it again?"

The Roton rides again?

[RightwingNutjob]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]

If I were the God-King of the American Mars program (and not just space astronomy), I'd be a little less ambitious for the next mission and maybe start with a bigger helicopter on a conventional lander/rover platform before I go all-in for the helicopter for the reentry.

Re:

[backslashdot]

I remembered it too, was going to mention that. That one and DC-X gave some hope for space in the 90s until NASA and congresscritters said we need the money for X-33 and then cancelled that too (which was a good thing prolly, since Elon Musk got to hire Tom Mueller from that and start SpaceX).

It's ready to go ...

[fahrbot-bot]

It's already been designed with build instructions [origamiway.com].

Also, define "land". :-)

Take that SouthAfrkianManBad!

[BigFire]

We'll land from orbit while you do your fancy belly flop. /s

Will it be designed...

[LordHighExecutioner]

...by Boeing ? (ducks...)

Re:

[Tablizer]

Trump replied, "My probes won't 'scream'! That's woke faggy shit. My probes go WaaaHoooo! all the way down until they land, bing bing, bong bong, like American probes should!"

Paywalled!

[Tablizer]

Nuke the paywall from orbit to be sure.

grumblegrumble

Re:

[votsalo]

Apparently, NASA only told newscientist about it.

and it will exist on the

[Growlley]

32nd of December,

It works

[Iamthecheese]

I've tried it and it works. You need your kerbal life support demands turned off if you're using those mods and it's super hard on electrical power, but the atmo is easily thin enough. You can't do a direct transfer though. If you use a large ablative shield there's no way to keep it pointed right without too much mass for aerodynamic structure to make up for the delta v savings. Do a non aerobraked transfer to low circular orbit, then gently dip into the atmosphere from there. No heat shield needed.