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The headline implies it will be soon, but the article doesn't give any information on when the first flight + footage is planned to happen. Tomorrow, days, wee
by deanclatworthy 6y ago
The headline implies it will be soon, but the article doesn't give any information on when the first flight + footage is planned to happen.
Tomorrow, days, weeks?
- vidanay 6y agoThe recent NOVA episode indicated that it would be around a month after landing for the helicopter flights.
- tesseract 6y agoI haven't seen anything on specific timing but I read they will be looking suitable terrain (flat with no large dangerous rocks, but enough small rocks for the helicopter's vision system to register) to fly in as the rover drives. There's also no provision for the rover to pick the helicopter back up as far as I know, so they will be stuck in the same place during the 30 day test campaign. Given that and given the "proof of concept" nature of the helicopter I imagine there might be a desire to start getting data back from the rover's main scientific instruments before deploying the helicopter.
- momothereal 6y agoAccording to https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/how-nasas-mars-helicopter-will-reach-the-red-planets-surface https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/how-nasas-mars-helicopter-will... (July 2020), it'll launch 60-70 sols after landing, so roughly mid-April.