Posted on 04/12/2020 8:56:21 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Perseverance's descent stage was also fueled up last weekend, just before the helicopter integration, NASA officials said.
The descent stage is the rocket-powered sky crane that will lower Perseverance onto the Martian dirt via cables in February 2021. Gassing up the crane was no trivial task; the craft's four tanks hold a total of 884 lbs. (401 kilograms) of hydrazine propellant, agency officials said.
"The last hundred days before any Mars launch is chock-full of significant milestones," David Gruel, the Mars 2020 assembly, test and launch operations manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. (JPL built Perseverance and is the lead center for the rover's mission, which is called Mars 2020.)
"Fueling the descent stage is a big step," Gruel added. "While we will continue to test and evaluate its performance as we move forward with launch preparations, it is now ready to fulfill its mission of placing Perseverance on the surface on Mars."
That placement will occur inside Jezero Crater, a 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) hole in the ground that hosted a lake and a river delta in the Red Planet's ancient past. Perseverance will hunt for signs of long-dead Martian life, characterize the region's geology and perform a number of other tasks, chief among
If all goes according to plan, the helicopter will be deployed in May 2021, 2.5 months after Perseverance's touchdown. The little solar-powered chopper will then conduct a series of short flights during a test campaign that will last up to 30 days.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
How interesting. News and traffic reports from Mars Chopper 1 on the local news?
Freeways on Mars.
Works for me.
The rotors must be huge to get any lift in that thin atmosphere.
L
bkmk
it does look like they are large in ratio to a light load.
Wikipedia has an article about the Mars Helicopter.
The whole vehicle weighs about 4lbs. A pair of of contra-rotating blades with a diameter of just over 36in spinning 1,900-2,800 rpm. It’s solar powered and each flight is meant to last no more than 3 minutes each. It only carries cameras. Supposedly, it’s being carried beneath the rover. It’ll drop the copter off, drive away, and then the copter will deploy it’s rotors and lift off.
I thought as you did, thinking the blades would look more like paddles. But it looks like they’re looking at rotational speed to create the necessary lift in the thin atmosphere.
Yeah, you and Lurkin are right: those are big blades for the payload.
not bad for a psych major LOL
I can see it now: The Sheila Jackson Lee Interstate.
“The Sheila Jackson Lee Interstate.”
It’ll be a speed trap.
rwood
with incorrect hwy signs
Can we send her up for the Grand Opening?
Return trip? Oh, we haven’t quite worked out how to do that yet; you just sit tight, Ms Lee, sit tight.
*ping*
Is Mars on lockdown?
“The whole vehicle weighs about 4lbs”
Thinner atmosphere, but 4 pounds on Mars is.....is anybody here George Costanza?
[Thinner atmosphere]
That’s what I was thinking too. Would explain the design.
What is tungsten, or Wolfram?
100 pounds on Earth is 38 pounds on Mars.
So 25 of these would weigh 38 pounds.
So one would weigh....
I’m still stuck.
Calculate the velocity, V, in relation to the trajectory, T, in which G, gravity, of course, remains a constant.
This piece of lettuce represents how much of George’s brain was previously used.
Now granted...
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