Ginny took flight!

The Rocketry Forum

Help Support The Rocketry Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
On my computer, the following video straight from NASA is much less choppy:
 
Here's a short video comparing the first and second flights;
 
Looking really good. Exciting to see them expanding the flight envelope. I really hope they figure out how to utilize this in future missions!
 
I've wondered why they plan to abandon Ginny after 5 flights presuming it survives that long. I would think they could extend the testing by having it fly over to Percy's next area of interest and land there. Seems like it could be useful to have it around for overflight purposes as well as expending the testing.
 
The way I read it, the ingenuity testing is essentially a distraction from the long term mission. Once they've done the flight tests, the entire priority switches over. But it seems like a weird explanation.
 
Probably tied to mission budgeting as well. Ingenuity is a tech demonstration, they could continue to expand the flight envelope, but I don't think she's designed to keep up with Perseverance. Even with as simple as it sounds. Plus there is the up/down link sizes that may limit operating both. I'd love to see more flights, but there are likely a lot of limitations we're not aware of.
 
Probably tied to mission budgeting as well. Ingenuity is a tech demonstration, they could continue to expand the flight envelope, but I don't think she's designed to keep up with Perseverance. Even with as simple as it sounds. Plus there is the up/down link sizes that may limit operating both. I'd love to see more flights, but there are likely a lot of limitations we're not aware of.
This could be a problem.

from Wikipedia

Ingenuity is expected to fly up to five times during its 30-day test campaign scheduled early in the rover's mission. Primarily technology demonstrations,[1][25] each flight is planned to fly at altitudes ranging from 3–5 m (10–16 ft) above the ground for up to 90 seconds each.[1] Ingenuity, which can travel up to 50 m (160 ft) downrange and then back to the starting area,[1] will use autonomous control during its short flights

so a one way flight would max at 100 meters. I am guessing it would then have to recharge one Martian day before it could fly again.

according to htttps://www.space.com/perseverance-rover-first-mars-test-drive

The rover drives with a top speed of .01 miles per hour (.016 kilometers).

the rover is atomic powered, so not limited by solar charging cycles. Not sure the helicopter can keep up.

On the other hand, also from Wikipedia, a previous rover

Opportunity was able to stay operational for 5111 sols after landing, maintaining its power and key systems through continual recharging of its batteries using solar power, and hibernating during events such as dust storms to save power. This careful operation allowed Opportunity to operate for 57 times its designed lifespan, exceeding the initial plan by 14 years, 46 days (in Earth time). By June 10, 2018, when it last contacted NASA,[10][11] the rover had traveled a distance of 45.16 kilometers (28.06 miles).[7]
 
Saw that this morning too. Aperently worked itself through quite the challenging set of issues.
 
Seems to me, that if they were to somehow find water that they could decompose into its elements, hydrogen blimp drones could be used to fly missions. These could be tethered, or freeflight, and possibly be able to be re-inflated for extended use.
 
Wouldn't the electrolysis involved also require quite a bit of energy? I wonder if the solar power available on Mars would be adequate for something like that.
Interesting idea though.
 
I have to think through the physics, but I don't think you get much lift from hydrogen balloon in very low density atmosphere of Mars.
Google is my playground so I went and played.
Hmm ...
Interesting ...
https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/s...Phase_II/Evacuated_Airship_for_Mars_Missions/
Apr 6, 2017
Evacuated Airship for Mars Missions

John-Paul Clarke
Georgia Institute of Technology

We propose to overcome some of the limitations of current technologies for Mars exploration and even extend current operational capabilities by introducing the concept of a vacuum airship. This concept is similar to a standard balloon, whereas a balloon uses helium or hydrogen to displace air and provide lift, a vacuum airship uses a rigid structure to maintain a vacuum to displace air and provide lift.

A vacuum airship made of a homogenous material cannot withstand the atmospheric pressure on Earth for any material humans have yet discovered, which can be proven using the critical buckling load of a sphere. However, from an initial analysis of the vacuum airship structure and relationship to atmospheric conditions, Mars appears to have an atmosphere in which the operation of a vacuum airship would not only be possible, but beneficial over a conventional balloon or dirigible ...
...

The Martian atmosphere has a pressure to density ratio that is very beneficial to the operation of a vacuum airship; this is a result of the high average molecular weight of the atmosphere (relative to other planets in the solar system) and the temperature of the atmosphere, the trend for which can be observed from the ideal gas law. Through a more in-depth analysis of the vacuum airship model, it can be shown that the vacuum airship may theoretically carry more than twice as much payload as a modeled dirigible of the same size, a 40-meter radius, in the Martian atmosphere.
 
Related content, https://preserve.lib.lehigh.edu/islandora/object/preserve:bp-10368874
Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations
Design of a Controllable Weather Balloon to fly on Mars
Abstract
As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) moves closer towards placing humans on Mars, prediction of the weather on the planet becomes more vital to ensure the safety of the astronauts. Currently on Mars NASA has land based weather stations on the rovers and a few satellites orbiting the planet that help to predict the weather. They also use Earth based telescopes to look at the Martian atmosphere similar to what an orbiting satellite would [1]. These resources provide information about what the weather is like on the surface and what the weather looks like from space but there is little information from inside the atmosphere. Having a device that can fly through the atmosphere and collect data would enable scientists to generate more accurate models of the weather on Mars.Another use for these devices could be to get aerial photographs of the planet, which could help to determine possible sites for future exploration. Also the Martian air could be collected and analyzed to determine its composition and whether there could be any airborne signs of life. The research presented in this thesis is a first step towards designing a device to fly on Mars and take weather data. A lifting type is selected and through test flights on Earth the design is modified until a workable platform for flight testing is achieved. Once it is determined, the design is scaled to be able to fly in the Martian atmosphere.
 
Back
Top