@PaulHammond51
Yes, helicopters are by nature avid leaf-blowers 🙃. The team already had #Ingenuity, but they hadn't thought, it seems, to use it for that purpose on identified targets. Maybe improving its 'landing gear' could make it easier to operate?
Helicopter sidekicks are very useful indeed. The larger #MarsChopper could certainly clear a wider path, and also provide detailed imagery of the ground below.
But for the time being, that's just reality going back to being #SciFi 🫤
@ruthpozuelo
Unfortunately, the new #MarsChopper Science Helicopters already prototyped by JPL won't be flying on Mars any time soon.
But why be sad? We have capsized private craft on the Moon, and a promise to colonize Mars by 2029 to dream on. Ain't that something?
@PaulHammond51
Thanks for sharing.
If, instead of trying to compact 10+ years of history he had expanded the last 3 ½ minutes to fit the whole 30 min video, it'd have been much more informative, IMO.
Those 3½ min of news:
Teddy Tzanetos has been working on the #MarsChopper, featuring 6 rotors instead of 1, a radio that can talk directly to satellites, 5 kg of payload, 3 km/sol range, AND, comes with its own Mid Air Delivering Platform (MADP ?). There is even a ⅕ scale model of Chopper.
Mars Chopper is Ingenuity in het kwadraat
De buitenaardse helikopter met zijn 36 rotorbladen is zo groot als een SUV: een flinke verbetering ten opzichte van de vier bladen van Ingenuity.
NASA's Mars Chopper-concept getoond in een ontwerpsoftware-rendering. NASA/JPL-Caltech
Bijna een jaar nadat Ingenuity een blad brak en zijn experimen
https://www.kuuke.nl/mars-chopper-is-ingenuity-in-het-kwadraat/
#helikopter #ingenuity #mars #MarsChopper #nasa #perseverance #RodePlaneet
De buitenaardse helikopter met zijn 36 rotorbladen is zo groot als een SUV: een flinke verbetering ten opzichte van de vier bladen van Ingenuity. NASA's Mars Chopper-concept getoond in een ontwerpsoftware-rendering. NASA/JPL-Caltech Bijna een jaar nadat Ingenuity een blad brak en zijn experimentele periode op Mars beëindigde, onthulde NASA een nieuw conceptontwerp voor de opvolger…
a NASA concept for a proposed follow-on to the agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter called Mars Chopper
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz4GaAE7OMQ
@65dBnoise More ideas about the design of #MarsChopper from Teddy Tzanetos in the second half of this video from #JPL in April 2023.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUtq8PwZpQ
During a Wednesday, Dec. 11, briefing at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting in Washington, Tzanetos (#Ingenuity's PM) shared details on the #MarsChopper rotorcraft […].
As designed, Chopper is approximately 20 times heavier than Ingenuity, could fly several pounds of science equipment, and autonomously explore remote Martian locations while traveling up to 2 miles (3 kilometers) in a day. (Ingenuity’s longest flight was 2,310 feet, or 704 meters.)
65dBnoise
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Kuuke's Sterrenbeelden
Daniel Pomarède
Bill Minarik