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Mars Exploration 1: Unmanned Missions (Probes; Rovers; etc.)

Might fly tomorrow.

The first helicopter on Mars is once again ready to attempt a historic flight on another world.

NASA will attempt the first flight of its Mars helicopter Ingenuity as early as Monday (April 19) after the tiny drone passed a critical test this weekend. The helicopter is targeted to take off at 3:30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT) on Monday, NASA said today (April 17).

It will take several hours for the data from that first flight to reach Earth, NASA said in a statement. You can watch that event live on Space.com and via NASA TV, starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT). NASA will also hold a post-flight update at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).

https://www.space.com/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-first-flight-april-19-2021
 
Might fly tomorrow.

The first helicopter on Mars is once again ready to attempt a historic flight on another world.

NASA will attempt the first flight of its Mars helicopter Ingenuity as early as Monday (April 19) after the tiny drone passed a critical test this weekend. The helicopter is targeted to take off at 3:30 a.m. EDT (0730 GMT) on Monday, NASA said today (April 17).

It will take several hours for the data from that first flight to reach Earth, NASA said in a statement. You can watch that event live on Space.com and via NASA TV, starting at 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT). NASA will also hold a post-flight update at 2 p.m. EDT (1800 GMT).

https://www.space.com/mars-helicopter-ingenuity-first-flight-april-19-2021
Taking their time, aren't they?
 
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About bloody time!
 
... I like this nice little tribute ...
The site has now been named and issued an official ICAO airfield designation just like the airfields on earth.
NASA Associate Administrator for Science Thomas Zurbuchen announced the name for the Martian airfield on which the flight took place.

“Now, 117 years after the Wright brothers succeeded in making the first flight on our planet, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has succeeded in performing this amazing feat on another world,” Zurbuchen said. “While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and 173 million miles of space, they now will forever be linked. As an homage to the two innovative bicycle makers from Dayton, this first of many airfields on other worlds will now be known as Wright Brothers Field, in recognition of the ingenuity and innovation that continue to propel exploration.”

Ingenuity’s chief pilot, Håvard Grip, announced that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) – the United Nations’ civil aviation agency – presented NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration with official ICAO designator IGY, call-sign INGENUITY.

These details will be included officially in the next edition of ICAO’s publication Designators for Aircraft Operating Agencies, Aeronautical Authorities and Services. The location of the flight has also been given the ceremonial location designation JZRO for Jezero Crater.

SOURCE: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/...-helicopter-succeeds-in-historic-first-flight
 
Another first from Perseverance
Nasa's rover makes breathable oxygen on Mars
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Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
@BBCAmoson Twitter

Published56 minutes ago
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An instrument on Nasa's Perseverance rover on Mars has made oxygen from the planet's carbon dioxide atmosphere.
It's the second successful technology demonstration on the mission, which flew a mini-helicopter last Friday.
The oxygen generation was performed by a toaster-sized unit in the rover called Moxie - the Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment.
It made 5 grams of the gas - equivalent to what an astronaut at Mars would need to breathe for roughly 10 minutes.
etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56844601
 
The drone has made its second flight.
Nasa's Ingenuity helicopter makes second Mars flight
_112909951_jonathanamos.jpg
Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent
@BBCAmoson Twitter


The American space agency has completed a second helicopter flight on Mars.
The small Ingenuity drone hovered 5m above the ground, tilted and moved laterally 2m, before then reversing and putting itself back down on the spot from which it took off.
Nasa wants each successive outing to up the ante - for the little chopper to fly higher, further and faster.
On Monday, Ingenuity made history by performing the first powered, controlled flight on another world.
etc

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56849723
 
China's Tianwen-1 lander, containing the Zhurong exploratory rover, has performed a successful landing on Mars.
China's 1st Mars rover 'Zhurong' lands on the Red Planet

China just successfully landed its first rover on Mars, becoming only the second nation to do so.

The Tianwen-1 mission, China's first interplanetary endeavor, reached the surface of the Red Planet Friday (May 14) at approximately 7:11 p.m. EDT (2311 GMT), though Chinese space officials have not yet confirmed the exact time and location of touchdown. Tianwen-1 (which translates to "Heavenly Questions") arrived in Mars' orbit in February after launching to the Red Planet on a Long March 5 rocket in July 2020.

After circling the Red Planet for more than three months, the Tianwen-1 lander, with the rover attached, separated from the orbiter to begin its plunge toward the planet's surface. Once the lander and rover entered Mars' atmosphere, the spacecraft endured a similar procedure to the "seven minutes of terror" that NASA's Mars rovers have experienced when attempting soft landings on Mars. ...

A heat shield protected the spacecraft during the fiery descent, after which the mission safely parachuted down to the Utopia Planitia region, a plain inside of an enormous impact basin in the planet's northern hemisphere. ...

The China National Space Administration (CNSA) has not yet officially confirmed the successful landing, but it has been announced on social media by the state-run China Global Television Network (CGTN) and by researchers at Macau University of Science and Technology in China. ...

China's Mars rover, called Zhurong after an ancient fire god in Chinese mythology, will part ways with the lander by driving down a foldable ramp. Once it has deployed, the rover is expected to spend at least 90 Mars days (or about 93 Earth days; a day on Mars lasts about 40 minutes longer than a day on Earth) roving around on Mars to study the planet's composition and look for signs of water ice. ...

Zhurong will work in tandem with the Tianwen-1 orbiter to study the Red Planet, and the orbiter will serve as a data relay station for communications between Zhurong and mission controllers on Earth. The orbiter is designed to last for at least one Mars year, or about 687 Earth days. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.space.com/china-mars-rover-landing-success-tianwen-1-zhurong
 
Chinas Zhurong rover has sent back its first pictures from Mars.

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"China has released the first pictures taken by its Zhurong rover on Mars.

The forward view shows the landscape ahead of the robot as it sits on its landing platform; the rear-looking image reveals Zhurong's solar panels.

The rover touched down on the Red Planet early on Sunday, Beijing time.

In doing so, it made China only the second nation - after America - to successfully put a probe on the surface of Mars and operate it for a significant length of time."

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-57172346
 
I think Mars has turned out to be a dead, forbidden planet.

I have not seen a Martian waving back at us.

There is nothing for humans on Mars and a waste of time.
 
Mars is not protected from the Sun’s radiation and has low gravity.

Mars’s air is 99% carbon dioxide and 1 % oxygen while the temperature averages a -80 F.

So far, no water and the soil is toxic.

Marvin the Martian could be the only Martian we will see.
 
Robots on Mars.

How Do You Make a Robot Walk on Mars? It's a Steep Challenge​

Meet SpaceBok, a little four-legged machine that's taking the first steps toward walking on the Red Planet's brutal terrain.

FROM THE SOJOURNER rover, which landed on Mars in 1997, to Perseverance, which touched down in February, the robots of the Red Planet share a defining feature: wheels. Rolling is far more stable and energy efficient than walking, which even robots on Earth still struggle to master. After all, NASA would hate for its very expensive Martian explorer to topple over and flail around like a turtle on its back.

The problem with wheels, though, is that they limit where rovers can go: To explore complicated Martian terra like steep hills, you need the kinds of legs that evolution gave animals on Earth. So a team of scientists from ETH Zurich in Switzerland and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany have been playing around with a small quadrupedal robot called SpaceBok, designed to mimic an antelope known as a springbok. ...

https://www.wired.com/story/how-do-you-make-a-robot-walk-on-mars-its-a-steep-challenge/
 
Robots on Mars.

How Do You Make a Robot Walk on Mars? It's a Steep Challenge​

Meet SpaceBok, a little four-legged machine that's taking the first steps toward walking on the Red Planet's brutal terrain.

FROM THE SOJOURNER rover, which landed on Mars in 1997, to Perseverance, which touched down in February, the robots of the Red Planet share a defining feature: wheels. Rolling is far more stable and energy efficient than walking, which even robots on Earth still struggle to master. After all, NASA would hate for its very expensive Martian explorer to topple over and flail around like a turtle on its back.

The problem with wheels, though, is that they limit where rovers can go: To explore complicated Martian terra like steep hills, you need the kinds of legs that evolution gave animals on Earth. So a team of scientists from ETH Zurich in Switzerland and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany have been playing around with a small quadrupedal robot called SpaceBok, designed to mimic an antelope known as a springbok. ...

https://www.wired.com/story/how-do-you-make-a-robot-walk-on-mars-its-a-steep-challenge/
I would have gone for some sort of robot centipede personally
 
I'm a bit surprised that omnidirectional wheels aren't being used. Maybe they have too many parts to go wrong.
 
I'm a bit surprised that omnidirectional wheels aren't being used
I think it's for the prime design objective of robust axial moment in forward traverse, at an effectiveness level far above the mere lockable steering differentials options seen in classic terrestrial off-road vehicles. If you can take forever to turn, then you should sedately do so....

I'd expect that as a true 6x6 (presumably with stepper DD motors on each wheel) the Perseverance rover does have some ability to 'crab', but that'd not be something the Control crew might want to do often.

I do like the 'family recognition silhouettes' plaque fitted on the top of the Rover....so as to assist any native Martians that're looking to collect a complete set of 'alien intruder vehicles'

2021-06-15 13.04.42.png


(also: the almost 11 million named Earthlings listed on the 'Send Your Name To Mars' plaque that's bolted atop the other side of the Rover might in retrospect want to consider exactly how an alien race would interpret such an collaborative artefact....does it say 'come back and see me some time', 'take me to your leader', 'finders keepers', or....what?)
 
They are built quite solidly, and engineered in such a way that they are as maintenance-free as possible.
They need to survive the take off on top of a controlled explosion.
The journey through the cold of space and the radiation from the sun, plus the cosmic background radiation.
Then the descent stage during which rockets fire and parachutes happen and explosive bolts fire to separate shielding.
Then the controlled landing by being carried by an overhead rocket driven cradle whilst being lowered on wires onto the surface.
Then the harsh conditions experienced on the surface once it gets there.

I doubt the designers would engineer it in such a way that.....'Oh Barry! One of the wheels has a loose nut'
 
I doubt the designers would engineer it in such a way that.....'Oh Barry! One of the wheels has a loose nut'
You'd think so....but.... (Wiki quote):
Engineers designed the (Perseverance) rover wheels to be more robust than Curiosity's wheels, which have sustained some damage. Perseverance has thicker, more durable aluminium wheels, with reduced width and a greater diameter, 52.5 cm (20.7 in), than Curiosity's 50 cm (20 in) wheels

This was because there was a range of reported problems with the wheels on Curiousity (however, with the added insurance that it can be commanded to destroy it's own metal 'tyres' and fail-over to still driving about using the remnant spokes
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton...y-could-rip-its-own-wheels-off-to-stay-mobile

After a year of exploring Gale Crater, JPL engineers noticed some wear on Curiousity's wheels, in the form of dents and small holes in the wheels’ 0.75mm thick aluminum skin. While not unexpected, the wear on the wheels kept increasing at a higher rate than JPL had planned for, and by early 2017 (after about 16km of driving), the rover had experienced the first breaks in the much thicker structural elements that hold its wheels together, called grousers.

This picture shows an earth-bound rover wheel that's been tested to destruction (but it's still capable of providing some traction)
MzgxNTgyMw.png
 
You'd think so....but.... (Wiki quote):


This was because there was a range of reported problems with the wheels on Curiousity (however, with the added insurance that it can be commanded to destroy it's own metal 'tyres' and fail-over to still driving about using the remnant spokes
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton...y-could-rip-its-own-wheels-off-to-stay-mobile



This picture shows an earth-bound rover wheel that's been tested to destruction (but it's still capable of providing some traction)
MzgxNTgyMw.png
I wonder why they didnt make the wheels out of titanium, although heavier pound for pound, its inherent strength means they could make the wheels with less material and titanium is much more durable
 
You'd think so....but.... (Wiki quote):


This was because there was a range of reported problems with the wheels on Curiousity (however, with the added insurance that it can be commanded to destroy it's own metal 'tyres' and fail-over to still driving about using the remnant spokes
https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton...y-could-rip-its-own-wheels-off-to-stay-mobile



This picture shows an earth-bound rover wheel that's been tested to destruction (but it's still capable of providing some traction)
MzgxNTgyMw.png
After only 16 km?
 
It certainly isn't a massive distance, I agree....perhaps there are other environmental wearout factors that aren't being made clear.
The rover moves really slowly and doesn't travel far.
On Earth, with heavier gravity, inflatable rubber tyres last a LOT longer than that.
Something wrong with their design.
 
The rover moves really slowly and doesn't travel far.
On Earth, with heavier gravity, inflatable rubber tyres last a LOT longer than that.
Something wrong with their design.

Yeah but rubber tyres don't do too well at -70 degrees celsius. There was a whole section on the wheels in the documentary I mentioned upthread. I can't remember much of it except for the spokes of the wheels being designed in a special way to inhibit dust and rocks fastening inside.
 
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