Encouraging news: #MarsHelicopter completed a full-speed spin test--an important milestone on our pat
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NASA
@NASA
Encouraging news: #MarsHelicopter completed a full-speed spin test—an important milestone on our path to 1st flight. The team is reviewing all data before making a decision about a potential flight attempt in the coming week. We'll keep you posted: http://go.nasa.gov/3v0mzay
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I had assumed it would be difficult to mimic the atmosphere of Mars on earth. They likely could reverse-engineer Mars gravity here. So I surmised they simply used math. The density of the atmosphere and gravity on earth versus the density of the atmosphere and gravity on Mars, and adjust the size and pitch of the blades accordingly. Aeronautic engineering has come a long way.
HOWEVER.
I caught a small blurb of an interview with the Project Manager, MiMi Aung, as she was squatting down next to another copy of Ingenuity, and she said something like 'We made the blades as big as possible. Hopefully it works.'
Say What? Not exactly the Scientific Method, eh? This may turn out to be a lot more dramatic than many folks were thinking. I hope it works too.
As the comm said to John Glenn in 1962, god speed Ingenuity.
