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

It's not a barrel, it's one of those metal cylinders the martians fired at Earth.
 
Will a helicopter work on Mars? I know they struggle a high altitude with low atmospheric pressure, i know when they started developing the Mars helo they theorised it was possible but it couldnt be tested practically on Earth
Perseverance includes a helo probe strapped to it. The helo has reported back successfully and it scheduled for more testing before launch. It looks drone sized.
 
Some great photos here

eg

Section of layering in a delta on the surface of Mars
 
Perseverance includes a helo probe strapped to it. The helo has reported back successfully and it scheduled for more testing before launch. It looks drone sized.
Small, very light, solar powered, with wide blades one above the other rotating in opposite directions. It was tested in a pressure chamber here on Earth in similar conditions to those on Mars. It is mounted under the rover, to be lowered to the ground and then launched after the rover starts moving. Completely autonomous, of course, one cannot fly an aircraft with a multi-minute lag between input and response.
PBS in the US had a great show on the engineering and testing of the rover and helicopter, including unexpected problems caused by the especially-intense cleansing of the sample tubes; it is possible to make something too clean to work.
 
A dark blob like that is in all of the recent photos from Mars.
It may be a grain of sand on the lens, or a dead pixel on the camera's CCD, or something may actually be flying around in Mars's atmosphere.

Something stuck on the lens would be the obvious answer, but the website claims that, of 4 photos taken almost simultaneously at that location, only one featured the mystery object.
 
The latest full-colour photos are magnificent.

This one caught my eye, due to the darker colouring at the top of the mound.
May well just be shadow but, given that dribbles of briny water have been observed dribbling down crater walls (as discussed in another Mars thread), could the dark patches be indicative of moisture?

View attachment 35875

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mult...0667217530_000FDR_N0010052AUT_04096_034085J01
index.php


There you go proof someone has visited Mars before. That is clearly an oil drum. I can't believe NASA hasn't airbrushed this one.
 

Sounds more like a feeble metronome, set to 200 BPM.
I expected full-on War of the Worlds zzzzzaaaappp sounds!

(and if a rock gets lasered on Mars, when there's no-one there, does it actually make any sound?).
 
Small, very light, solar powered, with wide blades one above the other rotating in opposite directions. It was tested in a pressure chamber here on Earth in similar conditions to those on Mars. It is mounted under the rover, to be lowered to the ground and then launched after the rover starts moving. Completely autonomous, of course, one cannot fly an aircraft with a multi-minute lag between input and response.
PBS in the US had a great show on the engineering and testing of the rover and helicopter, including unexpected problems caused by the especially-intense cleansing of the sample tubes; it is possible to make something too clean to work.

The copter is coming!

Ingenuity, the $80 million small helicopter that hitchhiked a ride to Mars on the Perseverance rover, will make its first flight early next month, likely no earlier than 8 April, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) announced today. If successful, it would be the first controlled, powered flight on another planet.

After Perseverance’s landing on 18 February, the Ingenuity team scouted the surrounding terrain for a flat, hazard-free airfield where the 1.8-kilogram helicopter could safely operate. It quickly became apparent that a 10-meter-square patch due north of the rover would serve perfectly, said Håvard Grip, Ingenuity’s chief pilot at JPL. It was “right in front of our noses.”

The rover is currently driving to the center of the airfield and should arrive in a few days. It will then take about 6 days to deploy the helicopter from its belly: breaking bindings, rotating to a vertical position, and extending spindly legs. Finally, with the helicopter’s feet hovering 13 centimeters above the surface, Perseverance will drop Ingenuity and then, within a day, roll away. A quick drive is essential, as Ingenuity can last only one frigid martian night before its solar panel must be exposed to sunlight. “The helicopter needs photons,” said Farah Alibay, Perseverance integration lead for Ingenuity at JPL.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...ly_2021-03-23&et_rid=394299689&et_cid=3710137
 
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