<
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/01/now-that-weve-flown-on-mars-what-comes-next-in-aerial-planetary-exploration/>
'Much has been written about the plucky exploits of NASA's small Ingenuity
helicopter on Mars. And all of the accolades are deserved. "The little mission
that could" did, flying 72 sorties across the red planet and pushing out the
frontier of exploration into the unknown.
Yet as impressive as Ingenuity's exploits were over the last three years, and
though its carbon fiber blades will spin no more, its work has only just begun.
Ingenuity was groundbreaking in two significant ways that will ripple through
the culture of NASA and its exploration efforts for decades to come. Although
it is impossible to know the future, both of these impacts seem overwhelmingly
positive for our efforts to divine the secrets of our Solar System.
First of all, and most obviously, NASA has now demonstrated that powered flight
is possible on other worlds. This is an idea that's no longer theoretical; it's
grounded in reality. "Engineering has absolutely shattered our paradigm of
exploration by introducing this new dimension of aerial mobility," said Lori
Glaze, NASA's overall director of planetary science.
In another, arguably more important way, Ingenuity may forever change the way
NASA, other space agencies, and eventually private companies explore and settle
the Solar System. The program did so by using commercial, off-the-shelf parts.
The scientists and engineers who built the helicopter had no choice. Flying on
Mars is incredibly demanding. The air is so thin it is equivalent to flying at
an elevation of 80,000 feet on Earth, or three times higher than the peak of
Mount Everest. Helicopters on Earth can max out at an altitude of about 25,000
feet before the air is too thin to support the rotation of their blades. So to
meet the demands of Mars, Ingenuity's designers had to be ruthless in their
choices. They could not afford the mass of radiation-hardened components, like
for batteries and computers.
So they bought commercially available parts and rolled the dice—with
astonishing results. Many NASA missions will never be the same.'
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-obamacare-ocean-conservation-ireland-pandas/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
