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After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends (www.jpl.nasa.gov)

submitted 10 months ago by Rapidcreek@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 74 points 10 months ago (4 children)

Flying on Mars is a lot harder than flying on Earth. If you don't believe me, listen to this developer of the flight sim X-Plane. The fact that they were able to get it to work at all is astounding.

[–] match@pawb.social 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

So, we should fly on Jupiter instead, right?

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 34 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Next flight is scheduled for Titan, which is a lot easier. The gravity is lower, but there's a lot more atmosphere, which means our helicopter can be nuclear powered!

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Or leg powered. The gravity is so low and the atmosphere so thick a pilot could pedal power a Cessna Skyhawk. Until he froze to death.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 5 points 10 months ago

That can be solved with some good leg warmer.

[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I mean flying on Titan would be so easily theoretically a guy with really big wings could reasonably flap himself around

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Run out and find me a guy with really big wings, I've got a job for him.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (3 children)

Is that even possible? I mean… with how volatile and exotic the atmosphere is, wouldn’t what a craft would be doing be more akin to how a submarine travels under water? Would “flying” even be the correct term? Wouldn’t it be more like navigating violent torrents of differently-dense gaseous layers? Some of which are (sometimes) liquid?

What would one even call that?

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

What would one even call that?

Fucking awesome.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Atmospheric pressure changes based on altitude, so there's probably some point where Jupiter's atmosphere that's a similar pressure and temperature to earth.

[–] midnight@kbin.social 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I looked it up, and the region of Jupiter's atmosphere at 1 bar is -100C. So you theoretically you could fly a modified Earth plane, it would just be a bit chilly.

Interestingly, though, Venus does have a zone with Earth-like temperature and pressure.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago

Thanks! I did a quick search and couldn’t find it but I know that with this crowd I’ll get an answer!

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 1 points 10 months ago

What makes cold temperatures a problem on earth is ice forming frombwater wapour in the atmosphere. No idea what you're likely to get on titan, but probably not that.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Supermarine?

[–] palitu@aussie.zone 8 points 10 months ago

That was really interest.

You could hear the excitement in their post!

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 1 points 10 months ago

Interesting. I was wondering how it would work at all with such a thin atmosphere. The author could chill out a bit though.

[–] DogWater@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

I think Veritasium has a video about this as well