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Author
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Topic: Robotic drones for planetary exploration
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SpaceAholic Member Posts: 5004 From: Sierra Vista, Arizona Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 02-08-2022 07:12 PM
"We know what the Wright brothers' first flight did for humanity here on Earth, and I think we'll follow that same model on other planets," said Teddy Tzanetos, a robotics technologist in the Aerial Mobility Group and team lead for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, in an interview with the BBC. "I hadn't thought of an analogue comparison like that, but the Dragonfly is the next step after Ingenuity's first flight," says Elizabeth "Zibi" Turtle, the principal investigator at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. "It will be the first [aerial] vehicle to carry its entire scientific payload from place to place."Like the early polar aviation pioneers, NASA engineers realised how aerial vehicles could revolutionise the exploration of new worlds. Iconic machines like the Martian landers Viking and Curiosity and orbiters like Titan's Cassini will continue to play key roles in exploration where there is a suitable atmosphere, but there might be other options. Robotic and controlled dirigibles, helicopters, drones and even inflatable propeller planes (all proposals by NASA scientists) could quickly gather high-quality data about large areas of a planet's surface, avoid hazardous terrain, collect up-close imagery impossible from a rover or orbit, and see mission targets from different perspectives. Aerial vehicles like these can also go where rovers can't – mountains, peaks, and even the inhospitable surface of Venus. The problem for NASA's engineers is that the environment on each planet imposes a different set of constraints on the type of aircraft, its payload and capabilities. The technology available to the engineers poses similar constraints. |
perineau Member Posts: 318 From: FRANCE Registered: Jul 2007
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posted 02-09-2022 10:40 AM
Reminds me of the debate between man and machines exploring space and if in the final analysis, space is perhaps a too expensive and dangerous place for humans to go. | |
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