Testing of a lightweight robotic helicopter designed to fly in the alien atmosphere of Mars has produced encouraging results in recent months, and NASA officials expect to decide soon whether the aerial drone will accompany the agency’s next rover to the red planet set for liftoff in 2020.
Jim Watzin, director of NASA’s robotic Mars exploration program at the agency’s headquarters, said last month that an engineering model of the helicopter has completed 86 minutes of flying time in a test chamber configured to simulate the Martian atmosphere.“The system has been built, it’s been ground tested, and then we put it into a chamber that was backfilled at Mars atmosphere (conditions),” Watzin said Feb. 20 in a presentation to the Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group, a panel of scientists that assists NASA in planning Mars missions. “Some parts were removed from the helicopter to compensate for the 1g (gravity) field to get the proper relationship of mass and acceleration at Mars, and we did controlled takeoffs, slewing, translations, hovers and controlled landings in the chamber. We’ve done that multiple times.”
Also a great candidate to just dump large numbers of with simple parachutes, as it is its own landing system.
Quote from: speedevil on 03/16/2018 07:44 pmAlso a great candidate to just dump large numbers of with simple parachutes, as it is its own landing system.no, parachute don't work for landings.
Quote from: Jim on 03/16/2018 08:00 pmQuote from: speedevil on 03/16/2018 07:44 pmAlso a great candidate to just dump large numbers of with simple parachutes, as it is its own landing system.no, parachute don't work for landings.Why doesn't a parachute work?Aeroshell, parachute, ditch the aeroshell, wait till steady state speed, pop out the rotors, land.
I hope drone is selected even if it is high risk. If successful it could dramatically increase amount ground rover can travel in a day. Could even be useful with landers, survey area around lander then reposition lander to new high interest area. Drone survey would allow pin point landing by lander.
Quote from: TrevorMonty on 03/16/2018 08:23 pmI hope drone is selected even if it is high risk. If successful it could dramatically increase amount ground rover can travel in a day. Could even be useful with landers, survey area around lander then reposition lander to new high interest area. Drone survey would allow pin point landing by lander.It would certainly be useful in scouting and surveying, especially before humans were to land at a site. And yeah, for a 'dull' stationary mission like InSight or Phoenix it would add useful PR flare and context about the surrounding terrain; akin to Sojourner for Pathfinder but more functional and longer range.
Another article on the same topic:http://spacenews.com/decision-expected-soon-on-adding-helicopter-to-mars-2020/
I am under the impression that if the drone does go through, it will reduce the risk for Dragonfly.
Dragonfly will use tech that the helicopter pioneers.
Quote from: AegeanBlue on 05/08/2018 11:26 pmDragonfly will use tech that the helicopter pioneers.Read http://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/docs/DragonflyTechDigestAPL.pdf and tell me if it has anything to do with JPL's toy coaxial.
" the helicopter will just be a flying eyeball."Yes... but a flying eyeball that can look at stuff. For instance, one idea is to scout ahead for a few hundred meters to check out the future drive path. Now, most often, the rover is only commanded to drive as far as its most recent stereo imaging reaches, occasionally adding more distance just using hazard avoidance software. But the longer view might permit longer drives, great for getting from study area 1 to study area 2 as fast as possible. This is only an experimental version of the concept, to be used a few times to see if it can be made to work effectively. If it works well, an enhanced version might be used much more on future missions, including human missions. So that's quite the eyeball.
" the helicopter will just be a flying eyeball."
Quote from: Phil Stooke on 05/09/2018 03:52 am" the helicopter will just be a flying eyeball."In addition to other things mentioned, the 'eyeball' has to land.When it lands, you can pretty much for free get 0.1mm or so footage of what's under the legs, blown somewhat clear by a brief wind of 200MPH or so.Adding a multispectral imager with some filters adds another several grams.Off-the-shelf XRF instruments are 1.5kg, it seems at least plausible that a 'heavy' version of this helicopter could carry the stripped down unshielded sensing head without much change. (one was on Sojourner). Hitting the surface with a several watt diode LASER pulse and seeing what happens can also be very light.(the helicopter has some 500g of margin, which would make it considerably less able to fly well, but still able to fly).A simple sample collection mechanism - a reel of tacky tape running over one leg, for example might be an interesting option.