Flying tonight!

wormster

Active member
If you were not impressed with remote flight on a different planet, how unimpressed will you be when the ESA probe lands on Mars, collects the samples left by the latest rover and returns them to Earth??? It has been fun knowing that something I have personally been involved in building may go to Mars and back.
 

Rob

Well-known member
I'm really into the current space tech industry, but i'm kinda with SamT on this one. Ingenuity is a proof of concept device. It actually is not set to do anything usefully scientific itself. And drone tech is very well proven on Earth, so it's not really reinventing much.
 

sinker

New member
Rob said:
I'm really into the current space tech industry, but i'm kinda with SamT on this one. Ingenuity is a proof of concept device. It actually is not set to do anything usefully scientific itself. And drone tech is very well proven on Earth, so it's not really reinventing much.

FFS well lets see you do it then with your ?9.99 Airfix kit and a rubber band  :LOL:

"Glass half empty" some people  :confused:
 

Logismos

New member
There's been a bunch of investigations into Martian cave exploration with robots:
https://ai.jpl.nasa.gov/public/projects/cave-rovers/
https://eos.org/articles/very-good-space-boys-robotic-dogs-may-dig-into-martian-caves

Some cool stuff, maybe we'll get hold of some tec one day
 

ChrisJC

Well-known member
And flying autonomously. You can't use your RC Controller when it takes 5 minutes to get to the other end.

You also don't have the luxury of the Van-Allen belts shielding your fangled 'lectrics from cosmic rays. And temperature variations of 100 degrees C.

I think it is an exceptional demonstration of technology.

Chris.
 

pwhole

Well-known member
And if all goes well with the test-flights, it can begin remotely-surveying the landscape. What's not to like? It's incredible.
 

Rob

Well-known member
ChrisJC said:
And flying autonomously. You can't use your RC Controller when it takes 5 minutes to get to the other end.

You also don't have the luxury of the Van-Allen belts shielding your fangled 'lectrics from cosmic rays. And temperature variations of 100 degrees C.

I think it is an exceptional demonstration of technology.

Chris.

The auto nav technology in a modern Tesla is a million times more advanced, being able to autonomously navigate cars at 70 mph among seriously crowded streets in poor visibility. Ingenuity's system is more akin to Bill Stone's AUV from 15 years ago.

And the necessary cosmic radiation and thermal protection technology was developed +20 years ago and allowed Opportunity rover to work for 15 years on the martian surface!

Ingenuity is only really impressive because it's a first of it's kind and it worked first time. This is great, and i was cheering at the stream as it came through to JPL today, but it's not really advanced technology. Right, now i want the rest of my beer...
 

Rob

Well-known member
SamT said:
Just think the money (and f*** me, its a veritable f*** ton of money) and effort could be much better spent a little closer to home.
Yer, if only all that money was spent here on Earth, expanding human's technological capabilities, creating new industries, providing jobs, and helping to foster peaceful connections between nations. Oh wait...

Space exploration is one of the most important areas of science that we as humans are fortunate enough to be able to study. It provides answers about the fundamental questions of the universe and our history within it.
 

aardgoose

Member
And if all goes well with the test-flights, it can begin remotely-surveying the landscape.

Sadly according to NASA it can only manage 90 seconds flight a day (needs to recharge it's batteries.  It also uses off the shelf mobile phone processors so is more likely to suffer radiation damage than the rover, which uses slower but hardened devices.I would imagine it has to be close to the rover for its command signals too.
 

Fishes

New member
Considering how low the atmospheric on Mars I think its a pretty amazing thing to get it to fly at all. Hats off to those that designed it.

 

SamT

Moderator
Rob said:
SamT said:
Just think the money (and f*** me, its a veritable f*** ton of money) and effort could be much better spent a little closer to home.
Space exploration is one of the most important areas of science that we as humans are fortunate enough to be able to study. It provides answers about the fundamental questions of the universe and our history within it.

I don't buy it.  Yes, I'll accept that there have been some spin off technologies that have advanced the comfort/convenience of our existence on this planet, velcro, ball point pens and some other minor perks like Sky sports  ;)

But I think those things could have been invented anyhow, without the need for space exploration beyond our immediate vicinity.

Everyone should read this.. Dinosaurs and all that rubbish ..

https://www.slideshare.net/mayllos2/the-dinosaurs-1

Not going to argue with anyone about it.  Just reckon the current fascination with reaching mars is all a bit of a rich mans folly.  Rich men should spend their money a little more wisely I feel. 
 
Top