Aerial Drone to Hunt Life on Mars..how cool is that?

# If selected by NASA, the Aerial Regional-Scale Environment Surveyor (ARES) could soar high above the Martian landscape. # The robotic airplane would see things inaccessible to wheeled rovers and Mars orbiters. # Its main function would be to measure atmospheric gases potentially generated by Martia

this is the coolest story i have read in a while..

from nov/12/2010..still cool..

just think of the possibilities we can discover on mars from an Aeriel view...


mars plane

The Wright Brothers flew their first successful powered flight from Kitty Hawk, N.C., over 100 years ago. Ever since that first lift off, aviation has provided explorers with a new tool for discovery and a better way to see the land below. Now, one scientist hopes to bring flight to Mars and explore what rovers and orbiters have left behind. Atmospheric scientist Joel Levine believes bringing an unmanned aircraft to Mars would tap into an unknown area where orbiters would be too far to reach and rovers too short to detect. The airplane, known as the Aerial Regional-Scale Environment Surveyor (ARES) will enable scientists to remotely sample a wide range of chemicals for multiple studies. Levine says the opportunities to explore more of what Mars has to offer will be accomplished through flight. "There are a whole class of measurements that haven't been obtained yet, that can only be obtained by flying about a mile above the surface and making measurements continually as you fly," Levine told Discovery News. According to Levine, the unmanned airplane

The idea of an airplane scanning the Mars landscape has another advantage -- it can dodge rough terrain. There are large mountains, volcanoes like Olympus Mons, deep valleys and canyons like Valles Marineris. One particular region in the southern hemisphere of Mars is saturated with impact craters, prohibiting rovers from traveling great distances. With an airplane, scientists can fly right over. "What the airplane gives is mobility, because we can travel 500 miles an hour anywhere," he said. The ARES plane continues to be modified at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va. Here, the plane is tested in wind tunnels to withstand winds of up to 100 mph. Scientists have also taken into consideration the common dust storms on Mars. "I am not worried about winds because we have simulated strong winds in our wind tunnel experiments. I am worried about dust storms because of the impact it may have on the visibility of the photographs we take," he said. The idea of sending a robotic airplane to Mars was first conceived about ten years ago. Levine contacted several aeroengineers and wondered if an airplane could fly through the atmospher

NASA only exists to make it look like we're slowly progressing to find other life and plants that support life even though we've been in close contact with many different alien races for over 50 years lol.

Uuuh, yeesss, me wants.
With nice top-down multispectral camera.
With lots of high-res visible spectre cams.
With nice sonar to probe the sub-surface terrain
Yeeey!

(Probably gonna need a lot of batteries )
S&F.

reply to post by baddmove


Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought Mars had next to no atmosphere so how is this thing meant to fly?

Wings don't get lift without atmosphere..

Originally posted by Thyhorrorcosmic
NASA only exists to make it look like we're slowly progressing to find other life and plants that support life even though we've been in close contact with many different alien races for over 50 years lol.

Or we really are progressing slowly because paranoia, dogma, and greed have been fueling wars consuming up a good chunk of money/resources that could have gone to other things, like space!

Either one really...

I want one of these flying drones on some moons like Europa, Titan, or Enceladus. But Mars is still cool with me.

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by baddmove

 

Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought Mars had next to no atmosphere so how is this thing meant to fly?

Wings don't get lift without atmosphere..

There's a decent amount of atmosphere on Mars, enough to get lift anyway (Well there should be). The whole point is to learn more about the Martian atmosphere, which we already know has trace amounts of methane which could indicate life. So hopefully this project will get some good new information.

reply to post by Stuffed

There's a decent amount of atmosphere on Mars, enough to get lift anyway (Well there should be). The whole point is to learn more about the Martian atmosphere, which we already know has trace amounts of methane which could indicate life. So hopefully this project will get some good new information.

Mars atmospher is less than 1% of Earth's..
That isn't much lift....

reply to post by OneLife

In all seriousness, the dumb dumbs have always lied to us to keep us ignorant

Not sure if it's me you're calling dumb or others..
But that's a funny pic.

reply to post by backinblack



Atmosphere is only a portion of lift...

If lift is greater than the weight of the aircraft, it will fly. As long as they can reach high enough speeds, or have large enough wings, they will generate lift. Not to mention the gravity on mars is 38% that of Earth's.

C'mon do you really think they would come up with an idea, set it into motion, announce it, only to realize that for some absurd reason the martian atmosphere prevents flight...


Oh god ICP and there magnets...lol

reply to post by Stuffed


Well the model pictured looks to have a very low aspect ratio..
Given that and the lack of an atmosphere, I can't see it flying on Mars..
Maybe you can tell me different..

reply to post by backinblack


It's dropping from space in a capsule that upon reaching a certain altitude it will spring out and open it's wings. More than enough speed for it to fly, or glide in this case.

If you can't be bothered to read the original article or at least do some research on your own then you shouldn't make claims.

Originally posted by Stuffed
reply to post by backinblack

 

It's dropping from space in a capsule that upon reaching a certain altitude it will spring out and open it's wings. More than enough speed for it to fly, or glide in this case.

If you can't be bothered to read the original article or at least do some research on your own then you shouldn't make claims.

I read the whole article..
It gives NO details of the craft apart from how it lands, which BTW will NOT give it starting speed.
There are no details of size, weight, wings, powerplant,range etc..

Not sure what you'd like me to read up on..

reply to post by OneLife


Dude, you rock. I needed that laugh right now!

Great post, OP, this is very cool! I hope they can budget to get two of these things flying at the same time so they can get two cameras at far enough angles to take truly 3-D pics kinda like Imax. Then when we see shadows on hills we won't have to wait 5 years to get the absolute conspiracy-proof evidence that it's not a face (or, conversely, that it IS a face, LOL!)

reply to post by backinblack

Once the parachute is deployed, the aeroshell breaks away exposing ARES to the Martian atmosphere for the first time. At about 20 miles above the surface, a spring ejects the airplane from its shell causing the wings to open and the rocket engine to automatically ignite. (Visit the ARES project site to view artist impressions of aircraft deployment.)

How would coming into the martian atmosphere not give it speed? I'm not sure what you mean.

But like i said, read the whole article, maybe even read a different article, take the time to actually look up lift, maybe even look up some details about flying in the martian atmosphere.

Originally posted by Stuffed
reply to post by backinblack

 

Once the parachute is deployed, the aeroshell breaks away exposing ARES to the Martian atmosphere for the first time. At about 20 miles above the surface, a spring ejects the airplane from its shell causing the wings to open and the rocket engine to automatically ignite. (Visit the ARES project site to view artist impressions of aircraft deployment.)

How would coming into the martian atmosphere not give it speed? I'm not sure what you mean.

But like i said, read the whole article, maybe even read a different article, take the time to actually look up lift, maybe even look up some details about flying in the martian atmosphere.

I did all that you say and then some..
It deploys a parachute as you quote..That means there is not much speed to speak of..
It could be a case of what the "artist" has drawn is nothing like the real craft,,
I do know what lift is..I have passes in all CPL subjects including aerodynamics..
But without knowing all the details it's just guessing..

If there wasn't enough atmosphere for a plane to fly, how would there have been enough atmosphere for the rover's landing parachute to have slowed it down? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the difference between what's required to "float" or "glide" and what's required to "fly"?

reply to post by baddmove


What they are admitting here that nobody realizes, is that mars HAS AN ATMOSPHERE!!! If an airplane can fly, humans can live there with no problem....

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by baddmove

 

Maybe I'm mistaken but I thought Mars had next to no atmosphere so how is this thing meant to fly?

Wings don't get lift without atmosphere..

I was thinking the same thing lol they must of forgot. Unless Mars has Earth type air and they forgot

reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

I was thinking the same thing lol they must of forgot. Unless Mars has Earth type air and they forgot

Or it's more a rocket than a plane, but then I couldn't see it having fuel for much air time..

Originally posted by backinblack
reply to post by Ophiuchus 13

 

I was thinking the same thing lol they must of forgot. Unless Mars has Earth type air and they forgot

Or it's more a rocket than a plane, but then I couldn't see it having fuel for much air time..

Okay now it's clear you misunderstood the purpose. It's a plane with a rocket engine that will ignite upon jetting out of the aeroshell and the wings open up. It's not taking off the ground and it's not multiple flight missions yet.

It's only meant (currently) to enter the atmosphere, start engines, and fly around 500MPH for a few hours before landing. In which time, they will gather a lot of useful data about the atmosphere and regions which are inaccessible to a ground based rover.