Mars does indeed have an atmosphere, which would be a requirement to generate lift with the propeller blades.
My point is that delivering something as delicate as a helicopter drone intact and functional on another planet is rather impressive, as far as space exploration goes.
I’m not grasping how flying a helicopter on Mars takes the same sort of technology, software and control as landing a probe on Mars. But feel free to explain why they’re the same.
The point that you appear to be trying to make, is that it’s really difficult to successfully land probes on the Moon and Mars, and therefore have little faith in human missions to either.
I countered with the fact that NASA was able to fly a land based probe, and something as delicate as a helicopter on Mars, intact. That’s how good the landing was. That’s how good the entire mission has been so far. A rather solid counterpoint to your pessimistic viewpoint.
You seem to be under the impression that I’m touting flying a helicopter probe on Mars as equivalent to launching a probe. That’s a you problem, unrelated to my point.
After watching several video clips of a helicopter taking flight on Mars, I’m far more bullish on manned missions than you are.
Isn’t it because Mars have an atmosphere?
Still think we can pull anything off if we want to. Also the Indian lander did its job and it wasn’t expected that it would last longer IIRC.
Mars does indeed have an atmosphere, which would be a requirement to generate lift with the propeller blades.
My point is that delivering something as delicate as a helicopter drone intact and functional on another planet is rather impressive, as far as space exploration goes.
How many Mars probes have we lost though? I’m really excited about the current rover and helicopter, but we’ve had a lot of misses along with hits.
Enough to gain the know-how to deploy a helicopter that has had multiple successful flights on another planet.
Flying a helicopter on Mars and successfully flying and landing a probe on Mars are vastly different.
Flying a helicopter on Mars was in fact, predicated on successfully flying to, and landing a probe successfully on Mars.
What exactly are you not grasping here?
I’m not grasping how flying a helicopter on Mars takes the same sort of technology, software and control as landing a probe on Mars. But feel free to explain why they’re the same.
The point that you appear to be trying to make, is that it’s really difficult to successfully land probes on the Moon and Mars, and therefore have little faith in human missions to either.
I countered with the fact that NASA was able to fly a land based probe, and something as delicate as a helicopter on Mars, intact. That’s how good the landing was. That’s how good the entire mission has been so far. A rather solid counterpoint to your pessimistic viewpoint.
You seem to be under the impression that I’m touting flying a helicopter probe on Mars as equivalent to launching a probe. That’s a you problem, unrelated to my point.
Ok. How many times has landing a probe on Mars failed? Because I can think of at least 3. Saying “this one succeeded” doesn’t really change the point.
Actually it does, since much of the success attained, is a direct result of what was learned from previous launches.
It’s part of an iterative process called “learning from past mistakes”.
If it’s any consolation, I doubt that you’d qualify for any space mission, so you’ll be quite safe from space travel related harm.
How many times have airplanes crashed? I can name at least 3 as well
Roughly half of them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mars_landers
Success rate is a lot better this century than it was last century though.