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Mars helicopter “Ingenuity” has been dropped to the surface

107 points by _Microft 6y ago

krm01 6y ago
These photos never get boring. Truly fascinating piece of engineering & achievement. What’s the best way to stay up to date on every (photo) update of this mission?
- jurmous 6y ago
  Follow the rover itself on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/NASAPersevere https://mobile.twitter.com/NASAPersevere
  - temp0826 6y ago
    ...is there a non-twitter version? (I loathe whoever decided this if it's the only place for it)
    - _Microft 6y ago
      The public mission page is at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ If you just hate Twitter's website only because of its bloat and slowness, you can use alternative frontends like https://nitter.net https://nitter.net At the moment, nitter.net is rate-limited but you can use nitter.eu instead for example: https://nitter.eu/NASAPersevere https://nitter.eu/NASAPersevere
oseityphelysiol 6y ago
Wow, I didn’t think the rover would have moved as much as it did already. Expected to see months of checkups, nice to see them progressing fast. Is there an approximate schedule of the first flight?
- Sharlin 6y ago
  Current target seems to be "no earlier than April 11"
- curiousgal 6y ago
  Wait I must have been living under a rock, are they going to fly a helicopter on Mars??! How will they control it? Latency issues and all.
  - WJW 6y ago
    It's a drone helicopter, it can fly itself.
  - _Microft 6y ago
    You can find its Wikipedia article at [0]. The answer is that it is (semi-)autonomous! [1] I think it is going to get directions where to go and will do the rest itself. Its processor is not hardened against radiation which most likely will make it rather short-lived but thereby they could use a much more powerful processor than otherwise possible. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenuity_(helicopter) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenuity_(helicopter) [1] It has to be as even under ideal conditions, Mars and Earth are never closer than ~55 million kilometers. This means the minimum roundtrip time is about six minutes at the speed of light.
ncmncm 6y ago
"And the nights were very cold" -- Burroughs, "A Princess of Mars".
monkeydust 6y ago
Great writeup here on how they built this self flying helicopter and the tech onboard. https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/aerospace/robotic-exploration/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/aerospace/robotic-explor...
- rwmj 6y ago
  This video was pretty good too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsZUZmJvaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsZUZmJvaM
tigerlily 6y ago
I read 'Mars helicopter “Money” has been dropped to the surface'.
belter 6y ago
Meet the Martians: https://mars.nasa.gov/people/?category=mars2020 https://mars.nasa.gov/people/?category=mars2020

107 points by _Microft 6y ago

These photos never get boring. Truly fascinating piece of engineering & achievement. What’s the best way to stay up to date on every (photo) update of this mission?

jurmous 6y ago
Follow the rover itself on Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/NASAPersevere https://mobile.twitter.com/NASAPersevere
- temp0826 6y ago
  ...is there a non-twitter version? (I loathe whoever decided this if it's the only place for it)
  - _Microft 6y ago
    The public mission page is at https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/ If you just hate Twitter's website only because of its bloat and slowness, you can use alternative frontends like https://nitter.net https://nitter.net At the moment, nitter.net is rate-limited but you can use nitter.eu instead for example: https://nitter.eu/NASAPersevere https://nitter.eu/NASAPersevere

oseityphelysiol 6y ago

Wow, I didn’t think the rover would have moved as much as it did already. Expected to see months of checkups, nice to see them progressing fast. Is there an approximate schedule of the first flight?

Sharlin 6y ago
Current target seems to be "no earlier than April 11"
curiousgal 6y ago
Wait I must have been living under a rock, are they going to fly a helicopter on Mars??! How will they control it? Latency issues and all.
- WJW 6y ago
  It's a drone helicopter, it can fly itself.
- _Microft 6y ago
  You can find its Wikipedia article at [0]. The answer is that it is (semi-)autonomous! [1] I think it is going to get directions where to go and will do the rest itself. Its processor is not hardened against radiation which most likely will make it rather short-lived but thereby they could use a much more powerful processor than otherwise possible. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenuity_(helicopter) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingenuity_(helicopter) [1] It has to be as even under ideal conditions, Mars and Earth are never closer than ~55 million kilometers. This means the minimum roundtrip time is about six minutes at the speed of light.

ncmncm 6y ago

"And the nights were very cold" -- Burroughs, "A Princess of Mars".

monkeydust 6y ago

Great writeup here on how they built this self flying helicopter and the tech onboard. https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/aerospace/robotic-exploration/nasa-designed-perseverance-helicopter-rover-fly-autonomously-mars https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/aerospace/robotic-explor...

rwmj 6y ago
This video was pretty good too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsZUZmJvaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhsZUZmJvaM

tigerlily 6y ago

I read 'Mars helicopter “Money” has been dropped to the surface'.

belter 6y ago

Meet the Martians: https://mars.nasa.gov/people/?category=mars2020 https://mars.nasa.gov/people/?category=mars2020