Nasa perseverance robot- landing tonight

[Malarkey]

They've got an experiment called Moxey

[JAS78]

Originally Posted by CT_Palace

Much clearer. High res, in colour. Plus the whole landing was recorded with sound (which will take a couple of days to download). Perseverance has loads of high res cameras. The issue is bandwidth to download all the data.
The first photo was just a quick low res "look I'm here" shot.

Plus they have a drone onboard for the first time, much easier to manoeuvre around the landscape.

[in-exile]

Mars .... Back to our Home planet then!

[richdeniro]

Apparently the samples that it digs up will be bought back to Earth in 2031 which sounds a bit worrying having seen that film Life.

[Hedgehog]

So they got their metric and Imperial calculations straight this time?

[CT_Palace]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog

So they got their metric and Imperial calculations straight this time?

Someone used my speedo trick

[Prince Phillip]

And slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.
Der-der-der.....

[chatham_eagle]

Originally Posted by Prince Phillip

And slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.
Der-der-der.....

Glad to see you're on the mend.

[CT_Palace]

Originally Posted by richdeniro

Apparently the samples that it digs up will be bought back to Earth in 2031 which sounds a bit worrying having seen that film Life.

The crazy thing is that if Elon Musk has his way, humans will be on their way to Mars and will pass that return sample mission when it's on its way back to Earth.

[Fatboy]

Anyone yet declared it all to be a hoax?

[Eagle's Nest]

I can set up a camera at West Wittering too

[LN1]

Originally Posted by JAS78

Plus they have a drone onboard for the first time, much easier to manoeuvre around the landscape.

A drone will definitely find signs of life on Mars as any living entity nearby will emerge and shout at Perseverance 'Oi you cant fly that here!' (drone flyer joke).

I'm hedging bets that when the pictures come in on how long it will take the assembled internet loons to claim a shadow looks like an alien nuclear power station or a rock resembles a Martian statue ?

[CT_Palace]

the drone is named Ingenuity. It's really just a test mission - first controlled powered flight on another planet - but it has lots of cameras. Each flight will last only max 90 seconds then it needs a day to recharge the batteries using a solar panel.
It's different from the drones on Earth because of the very very thin atmosphere on Mars - it has 2 contra-rotating blades which will spin (need to spin!) way wayyyyy faster than an Earth drone (hence the max 90 second flight time).
If they can get it to work it should provide some spectacular aerial photos.

[LN1]

Originally Posted by CT_Palace

the drone is named Ingenuity. It's really just a test mission - first controlled powered flight on another planet - but it has lots of cameras. Each flight will last only max 90 seconds then it needs a day to recharge the batteries using a solar panel.
It's different from the drones on Earth because of the very very thin atmosphere on Mars - it has 2 contra-rotating blades which will spin (need to spin!) way wayyyyy faster than an Earth drone (hence the max 90 second flight time).
If they can get it to work it should provide some spectacular aerial photos.

Thanks, I didn't know about this so I may have to take a closer look at this part of the mission.

[Eagle's Nest]

Originally Posted by CT_Palace

the drone is named Ingenuity. It's really just a test mission - first controlled powered flight on another planet - but it has lots of cameras. Each flight will last only max 90 seconds then it needs a day to recharge the batteries using a solar panel.
It's different from the drones on Earth because of the very very thin atmosphere on Mars - it has 2 contra-rotating blades which will spin (need to spin!) way wayyyyy faster than an Earth drone (hence the max 90 second flight time).
If they can get it to work it should provide some spectacular aerial photos.

Hold up. I need someone to explain the physics of needing more power in thin air.

[Hedgehog]

Originally Posted by Eagle's Nest

Hold up. I need someone to explain the physics of needing more power in thin air.

Ever hear or see a helicopter fly over 10,000 feet?

Big ones with jet engines maybe 20,000 ft.

Air's too thin.

[CT_Palace]

Originally Posted by Eagle's Nest

Hold up. I need someone to explain the physics of needing more power in thin air.

Thin atmosphere will not provide as much lift if the rotor blades are spinning “slowly” (slowly as in like a drone on Earth) so the rotor blades on Ingenuity need to rotate much much faster to generate sufficient lift, even taking into account Mars’ gravity is less than that of Earth.

[steve mull]

Did all the Palace Defence and strikers go up on that spacecraft, as we have been shit for ages

But joking aside, it was an awesome watch, and just shows the technology that is produced now, we only have to go back 110ish years, and we hadnt even managed power flight !!

[LN1]

Originally Posted by Eagle's Nest

Hold up. I need someone to explain the physics of needing more power in thin air.

With a propeller based system lift is provided by the differential in pressure above and below the rotating blades. The denser the air or the faster the blades travel through air the more more lift is generated. In thinner air there is very little lift generated so to counter this the blades have to move much faster to generate the same lift as in denser air. This is a downside of using propellers in thin air but other forms of propulsion would probably use to much energy to be recharged or replaced daily

[CT_Palace]

Originally Posted by Hedgehog

Ever hear or see a helicopter fly over 10,000 feet?

Big ones with jet engines maybe 20,000 ft.

Air's too thin.

I think I saw that flying on Mars is the equivalent of a helicopter flying at 70000ft on Earth.
Whatever, it is significantly more difficult.

EDIT, 100,000ft !!