ESA builds helicopter dropship for Mars rovers

[Sky_walker]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Technology/Dropship_offers_safe_landings_for_Mars_rovers

8 months, 3 research centers, and ESA got working proof-of-concept helicopter dropship for a small Martian rovers, hehehe. I like how they used commercially available components - from quadcopter down to the SanDisc memory card . Fancy sensors, clever AI, and they have a very nice sky crane.

It will be nice to see a first man-made helicopter on another planet

Seems like the guys making mods which add rotors and a capacity to build helis were up to something

[SargeRho]

This is actually just for testing. On Mars, it'll most likely use Rockets like Curiositiy did.

[Nuke]

some things:

first off, you are going to need very big rotors, very high performance motors, or both in the thin atmosphere.

second, you cant use off the shelf components if you want any kind of endurance. everything has to be rad hard.

[SciMan]

SD cards have been around long enough that there's probably at least one manufacturer of them that makes a rad-hard model. It's probably a lower-capacity one, however, seeing as rad-hard stuff tends to be older tech, with larger transistors in the chip and additional error-correction circuitry added, along with some kind of radiation shielding. That's the "how to" for rad-hardening electronics that I know of, anyways.

You might be able to order a rad-hardened pentium-4 off-the-shelf these days.

[Nuke]

i think i would prefer to just solder flash memory packages right to the board. really what good is a socketed part on a space craft that will never be serviced by human hands. eliminate the weight of the socket entirely, and a point of failure as well. its ok for prototyping of course.

[SciMan]

Well, there's the possibility that some green alien with a large head might want the science data...

All kidding aside, this quad-copter is almost certainly intended solely for working on lander control algorithms. As such it's being done cheaply by using off-the-shelf tech that can be easily reconfigured.

As much as I agree it would be cool to see a rover make a quad-copter assisted landing on Mars, the aerodynamics of such a thing simply don't make practical sense. Sure you "can" do it, but the size of the quad-copter required would probably mean you could have sent two rovers landed Curiosity-style instead.

Of course, that being said, I've always wanted to see an electric motor-glider type probe get sent to another planet. Titan would be a great place for that kind of thing, but it's so far out that you would have to use RTGs to power it. Of course the thick atmosphere means that using RTG's to power a prop plane would actually work pretty darn well compared to trying that on Earth.

[Sky_walker]

I doubt ESA would build a proof of concept craft and fund further studies if it'd think that it doesn't make a practical sense.

BTW: Some people thought the same about harpooning into comets... which ESA is about to do this year.

first off, you are going to need very big rotors, very high performance motors, or both in the thin atmosphere.

second, you cant use off the shelf components if you want any kind of endurance. everything has to be rad hard.

@1) depends on a weight and thrust they can generate. Getting high performance motors is not a problem. Size on the other hand - might be. But considering how small the lander is - it should be doable. ESA isn't trying to drop a new curiosity out there And major advantage of this system over dropping cargo with a rocket-powered crane is that you can precisely drop small cargo on a rough terrain without disturbing it much.

@) It's a proof of concept craft. Not even a prototype. They won't be using SanDisc cards on a Martian dropship. I thought it's obvious....

Edited July 8, 2014 by Sky_walker

[R0cketC0der]

The atmosphere of mars has about 1% of the density of earths atmosphere. This means that you would need 100 times more surface area and therefore far more than 100 times the weight to generate the same amount of lift as on earth. I doubt that this could ever be more effective than rockets.

[SargeRho]

But due to the thinner atmosphere, your rotors can also spin a lot faster.

[NASAFanboy]

Could they construct a hybrid? As in a helicopter that uses small thrusters to stay in the air and for control purposes. That would be interesting.

[magnemoe]

The atmosphere of mars has about 1% of the density of earths atmosphere. This means that you would need 100 times more surface area and therefore far more than 100 times the weight to generate the same amount of lift as on earth. I doubt that this could ever be more effective than rockets.

Yes, my take on this is that they are testing the system.

The objective here is for the lander to find a safe landing spot during decent, this is more critical for an small rover where a 20 cm rock could have it stuck.

Using an quadcopter is far cheaper and safer than something rocket powered. You are only testing software and control anyway.

How many mechjeb landings has been aborted because of landing zone?

[Rickenbacker]

Could they construct a hybrid? As in a helicopter that uses small thrusters to stay in the air and for control purposes. That would be interesting.

Well, you could, but if you have thrusters that can keep you airborne and control the craft, why would you need rotors?