NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover
Discussion
Blackpuddin said:
eharding said:
Blackpuddin said:
FunkyNige said:
Blackpuddin said:
Is there any danger of the solar panels not being able to recharge the drone? Am thinking about the panels being coated by the dusty atmosphere which I seem to recall has been a problem on previous Mars missions.
Hopefully they can just spin the rotors up every now and again to clear them?ETA Maybe the airjet wouldn't work so well/at all on Mars, told you I was out of my depth!
The ultrasonic idea presumably would though. Edited by Blackpuddin on Wednesday 31st March 13:00
Of course, it needs to be in one piece for that to work.
Isn’t the helicopter only there to prove the technology? It’s not doing any actual science. Therefore, it’s not mission critical to keep it active as long as possible. Maybe it wasn’t worth the financial cost and weight penalty to install systems for cleaning the solar panels. Not at this stage anyway.
I'd guess guess experience from Spirit and Opportunity gives them a good idea of likely rates of contamination.
Give the helicopter can only communicate through the rover, I"m wondering what they'll do at the end of the test programme. Is it worth their while trying to hop along to keep in range of the rover, grabbing photos along the way for as long as it lasts?
Give the helicopter can only communicate through the rover, I"m wondering what they'll do at the end of the test programme. Is it worth their while trying to hop along to keep in range of the rover, grabbing photos along the way for as long as it lasts?
xeny said:
I'd guess guess experience from Spirit and Opportunity gives them a good idea of likely rates of contamination.
Give the helicopter can only communicate through the rover, I"m wondering what they'll do at the end of the test programme. Is it worth their while trying to hop along to keep in range of the rover, grabbing photos along the way for as long as it lasts?
I think if it works, they'll try and use it as a scout for the rover.Give the helicopter can only communicate through the rover, I"m wondering what they'll do at the end of the test programme. Is it worth their while trying to hop along to keep in range of the rover, grabbing photos along the way for as long as it lasts?
So when they're faced with decisions of a particular route to take they can look ahead with Ingenuity and see which route may have the best targets.
I wonder if they considered fitting an LED under the mother vehicle, so it could drive over the drone and recharge it that way. Meanwhile, keeping it safe from sandstorm deposits. The rover does of course have a robot arm, and in the past the drill attachment has also had a rotating brush associated with it, to brush away naturally deposited dust and drill residue off rocks. They could probably use that to clean the panel if they had to.
Blowing air at something isn't easy when the atmosphere is so thin. Although the rover does have an experimental oxygen generator, which itself has a scroll pump to generate higher pressure gas.
Blowing air at something isn't easy when the atmosphere is so thin. Although the rover does have an experimental oxygen generator, which itself has a scroll pump to generate higher pressure gas.
Looks like they've spun the rotors and all good. First flight planned for Sunday.
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars-helicopter...
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-mars-helicopter...
Numerous fragments! (hopefully not the helicopter)hidetheelephants said:
Do they have means of cleaning the lenses? I'm imagining a spindly arm holding a lense cloth but probably not! 
No, but that mast is about 2 meters up in the air, so dust isn't a bad problem apparently. The little Martian wind storms actually help to avoid the build up of dust. Also, when the rover is sleeping, the masthead faces downward (awwww). They also turn the mast to point away from anything that could cause dust to be kicked up (like drilling).
The cameras located further down, like the WATSON camera on the arm, have dust covers on them and they're only moved away when the camera is in use. That's proven to work well on other rovers.
Interesting ingenuity video here covering the design, engineering and aerodynamic differences and some of the issues facing it.
https://youtu.be/GhsZUZmJvaM
https://youtu.be/GhsZUZmJvaM
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