Fist powered flight on another planet. Should be awesome to observe. How many flights? Chopper blades should keep dust off solar panels.
This sol 16 image from phase4 at UMSF. Didn’t see it on the raw feed. Color is suspect due to Forum bias. Nevertheless, looks like a good starting image. It’s about showtime!
A little background from JPL. There should be a correction. Mars atmosphere is 6% not 1%. Gravitational influence may add another 3%.
For example atmospheric pressure on Mars averages 6 millibars the triple point of water. It goes up to 13 millibars. 1000 millibars is one bar. Why they spout that BS is beyond me. Sorry, I’m an atmospheric guy.
Sorry I’m off the chain.
1000 millibars is sea level pressure on Earth. Deep breaths, deep breaths…
Breaking News: NASA was right, I was wrong. Should have moved that decimal one more time to the left. Instead of 6%, it should be .668%. With pressures of up to 15 millibars or 1.5% in other locations, 1% is a good average. This is still misleading. Gravitational influence must be understood.
For example, if you stripped the Mars atmosphere away and replaced it wth Earth’s atmosphere; the surface pressure would drop from 1000 millibars to 382 millibars. Same atmosphere. What happened? It was less compressed. Now, instead of 100 miles deep, it’s 230 miles deep, estimate.
Most likely they are using the KISS method. (Keep it simple stupid.) They would have to understand this with atmospheric interface and drag.
Word on the street. Up to 90 days till deployment. Got to find that “Goldie locks” spot.
Can you imagine this device in larger form bringing samples to a common fixed location with the samples marked and logged? So much cheaper than sending a collection rover to traverse a second time across tens of miles of difficult terrain.
Just imagination and economics.
Great images. Thanks for keeping an eye on the timer.
I have linked your topic to mine.
Video sol 30-31
Well, we sent a rover and drone to another planet. It’s a big achievement. But what about placing a new satellite into Mars’ orbit? I know there were several probes, and several orbiters are still operating. However, I suppose it’s necessary to launch a new satellite with a more powerful camera. What do you think, what company will do it first: will it be a governmental agency, a private enterprise, or any young startup? I have hops for Dragonfly Aerospace, even though it may seem too young to launch such a spacecraft. At least, I want to believe in it.
I don’t think you can get any higher resolution than MRO. If you could use MRO magnification and attach a 100 dollar color digital camera from Wal-Mart, that company will be famous indeed. The company that does that will most likely be SpaceX on first Starship payload.
Image processing on current satilites are subject to bias, interpretation and fantasy. I can still hear Hort grumpling when I said, “Just take the picture.”
Example of Viking NASA “image”. This lie was mainstream.
Image link
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/imgcat/html/object_page/vo1_mg07s078.html
ESA Rosetta image. Almost identical.
It should also be noted at the time of Opportunity’s landing the location of Hemotite was key. Those the rise of Hortacolor.
The lowering will be slow and in several stages as I read the description.
Legs fully deployed. Ready for drop.
Making Mars appear to be Earth is rather difficult. Looking at this angle makes the items I was finding on the surface below the rover simply vanish from recognition. A look in two perspectives of color.
Details of the legs at about 6X makes thr mechanism appear prone to failure, but these must be the best hardware made on Earth.
Survived the night. We will see.
This is a real test of the weather on small devices on Mars. The upper surface is compromised by the landing debris or other source of dust cover on the panel, and lack of ability to self clean.
Delayed to a least April 14 for a test flight.
Do you have any detail link for the dust cover on the top panel? Clearly applied while Ingenuity was stowed in the rover. The debris on the cover was rather severe, but I did not have a good view of the various types of materials on the cover seen after it was dropped.
Thanks for the weather data Dana. Conditions change rapidly it seems as we move north.
Helicopter fails high speed test. Software issue it would seem. Elon where are you son?
