The Sound and Vision of a Helicopter in Flight on Mars Released by NASA

Eating this obvious load of bovine excrement, with enthusiasm!
NASA really has hit one out of the park.
With the Covid, I guess ANYTHING is believable, in this New Normal.
CHECK PLEASE!!

a reply to: gortex

I wonder if they considered a submarine to send to Venus?
With the density of its atmosphere a drone built like a submarine would be an option.
Much like a blimp.

Ballast tanks to control depth and it could stay higher up for most of the time to reduce stresses and just drop down in short intervals to take readings.

a reply to: Bluntone22

She's got to be called the "Lucky Starr".

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Bluntone22

She's got to be called the "Lucky Starr".

Or miracle?

a reply to: Bluntone22

I liked "Lucky Starr" because of the old Isaac Asimov book.

Be a "miracle" to do it with our current technology, but a nice enough name i suppose.

Kind of easier to get to Venus than Mars in some respects.

Proximity wise makes transportation and communications a simpler affair for a start, and apparently with our current propulsion system and technologies, launch windows to Venus occur every 584 days, as opposed to 780 days for Mars.

a reply to: andy06shake

690K = 416C

www.google.com...

1,000°F
Steel can be soft at 538°C (1,000°F) well below the burning temperature of jet fuel.

So what type of metal is this drone going to be made of?

a reply to: gortex

Sure stay afloat but what metal would it be made out of - what about the electronics?

a reply to: TheConstruKctionofLight

I don't think our material science is quite there yet regarding flying drones down near the surface of Venus.

Higher up in her atmosphere might be a possibility one day quite soon through.

I imagine just down to weight alone Steel would be a poor choice of material for drone construction.

Better i think with Titanium which has a melting point of 1,668°C apparently.

But again weight is going to be an issue.

Possibly Siloxanes or some kind of bicomponent resin could accommodate the temperatures and pressures involved?

Adamantium nor Unobtainium being an actual thing yet im not quite sure if im honest.

That link simply takes you to Google by the way.

Venera lasted for 23 minutes before succumbing to heat and pressure down there, then again she just sat there.

a reply to: gortex

Also sounds like a rock song!!

The thing hits the ground and the AI then tells it to stop trying to fly! How backwards is that?! But apply to Greys and you see the same “reasoning”!!

Onboard with Mars Helicopter as it heads to its new base.

originally posted by: Bluntone22
a reply to: gortex

Having anything operating on Venus would be extremely difficult.
450*c ....wow. And solar probably is not feasible.

That and the air pressure is tremendous.
A chopper would need much smaller blades though...lol

The upper atmosphere of Venus is probably the most benign environment for humans in the solar system other than Earth. NASA's even speculating about manned blimps flying lengthy missions on Venus, that is, in its upper atmosphere. Below is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article "High Altitude Venus Operational Concept."
en.wikipedia.org...

Venus is a planet with a runaway greenhouse effect, with surface temperatures and pressure of 737 K (464 °C; 867 °F) and 92 bar (91 atm) respectively. Conventional rocket engines will not work at those pressures.[citation needed] Hence, human missions to Venus have historically been thought impractical, if not impossible. However, Venus has advantages for crewed travel, such as being closer than Mars, an Earth-like gravity (0.904 g) and an atmosphere that provides a level of protection from solar and interstellar radiation.

Whereas all ground missions measured their operational time in minutes or hours, the Soviet Vega missions found success in launching small balloons, that operated until their batteries were exhausted (days). At 55 km (34 mi) altitude, the atmosphere of Venus is 27 °C (81 °F) and 0.5 bar (50 kPa) (the equivalent pressure at an elevation of about 5,500 m (18,000 ft) on Earth). However, due to the large amount of CO2, the density for a given pressure is greater than in Earth's atmosphere. Therefore breathable air acts as a buoyant gas. At the same time, the gravity at the proposed altitude is 8.73 m/s2 versus 9.81 m/s2 on Earth's surface.

Venus has an induced magnetosphere from the interaction of its thick atmosphere with the solar wind, and its nearer proximity to the Sun brings it further within the Sun's magnetic field, which decreases the interstellar radiation levels. With the addition of the reduced deep space exposure time, the radiation levels anticipated by astronauts are much less than an equivalent Mars mission.

This video may be of interest to some. Check out the dust devil in the background. The way Ingenuity maneuvers in the thin Martian atmosphere is amazing. I do not know the speed it was filmed at but in this video it moves like it would move on earth. I expected different results.

Ingenuity 5th Flight

a reply to: Diogeneser

Cool , thanks for the video.

The most definitive evidence of a craft operating in airspace of a planet from whichit was not created, is a human craft from Earth.

Very cool indeed.

a reply to: Bluntone22

A powered blimp probably makes sense , Russia flew balloons in Venus's atmosphere as part of their Vega missions to the planet.

But at your balloons’ airborne elevation 30 miles above the ground, the planet is a relatively clement place, with temperatures and pressures similar to those on the Earth’s surface. Were it not for the sulfuric acid clouds and hurricane-force winds, this slice of sky might be considered a veritable heaven.

Your balloons harnessed the 150-mile-an-hour breezes to drift a third of the way around Venus over the span of nearly two Earth days. As they traveled, their small gondolas took altimetry measurements that showed the balloons experiencing turbulence, sometimes bouncing up and down in mile-long lurches in the space of minutes. At one point, your balloon, Vega 2, might have even flown through a shower of sulfuric acid rain—recording the first precipitation on another world. Though they traveled at night, your instruments picked up bursts of light leaking through the clouds, most likely from the thermal glow of Venus’ super-hot surface. It’s even possible you saw lightning.
www.nationalgeographic.com...

a reply to: andy06shake

Thanks for the detailed reply,; I still wonder how the comms/chips/ electronics would withstand those temps

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

I always thought there was a lot of Dust on Mars - This Helo hasn't kicked anything up yet , even at the High Rotor Speeds

a reply to: jerich0

Lets just be glad they didnt record in Portrait mode

a reply to: gortex

The only "other world" I can think of with an atmosphere suitable for a helicopter to fly is Venus

Titan.
Triton.
Io.
Callisto.

For anyone who has a pair of 3D glasses NASA have released a video of Mars helicopter's 3rd flight in 3D.

Well done Phage , you win a Mars biscuit.