21 ms·
It's probably as simple as: they didn't have time. You have to move slowly and carefully on Mars. One rushed mistake and it's over.
by thelean12 6y ago
It's probably as simple as: they didn't have time. You have to move slowly and carefully on Mars. One rushed mistake and it's over.
- amelius 6y agoYes, but chances of getting useful data out of the helicopter are much greater if you test the thing before subjecting it to harsh conditions. For example: if you know that lift-off works, then that's a huge datapoint.
- thelean12 6y agoI bet they'd move faster if they could. I'm guessing for takeoff there's a good amount of analysis to do beforehand. Terrain, weather, system checks, whatever. I don't know the actual list, but it's not hard to guess why they couldn't do everything, including ejecting it from the main rover and getting the main rover out of the way, in the ~12-14 hours a day that they have to do stuff.