On 1/15/21 7:43 PM, 5Z wrote:
On Friday, January 15, 2021 at 5:48:31 PM UTC-7, Dan Marotta wrote:
On 1/15/21 6:39 AM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 14 Jan 2021 16:13:49 -0800, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:

As any true aviator (helicopter pilot) knows the first flight on another
world will be by the premier of all aircraft, the helicopter.

Mankind's magic carpet.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/s...pter-nasa.html

Yep, heard about it, but thanks for posting that URL. It will be
interesting to see how well it does on RealMars (TM). In Martian
conditions a helicopter makes more sense than a powered plane or glider
because it should have a much lower landing speed.

BTW, the Aurora ARES design had an inverted V tail on twin booms to keep
the stabiliser clear of exhaust from a rocket unit mounted on the centre
line at the wing's TE) - a common design in the S-8P rocket glider RC
competition class which, oddly enough, Bob Parks competes in with his own-
design models.


What helicopter can fly at 100,000' (the air density in the Martian
atmosphere)? If there is one, I'd like to know about the rotor design
as my gyro plane can't get much above 10,000'. Oh yeah, it'll have to
carry its own oxygen for combustion unless it's going to get really exotic.

Well Dan, if you read the article, you'll see:

"About 20 years ago, it couldn’t have been possible, really, because of the math,” said Ms. Aung who was a deputy manager of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s autonomous systems division before joining the Mars project.

But a number of advances, such as miniaturization of electronics, batteries that stored more energy and materials that could be shaped into lightweight blades, had finally made the dream of Mars flying machines into a technological possibility, Ms. Aung said.


Well Tom, I guess I've got a lot of reading to do.

Do you remember Joe Berger? I believe he submitted a proposal for a
fold up glider for the Mars project. Wonder what ever became of it/him.

--
Dan
5J