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Mars Helicopter (before it went to Mars)

Veritasium · 6.2M views · 2019-08-10 · 16:01

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Overview

Veritasium's Derek Muller visits NASA JPL to see the Mars helicopter Ingenuity before it was mounted on the rover. He explains how it can fly in Mars's thin atmosphere with large, fast-spinning contra-rotating rotors and low mass, and covers power and cold.

On Hacker News

HN repeatedly recommends it as an excellent explanation of why flying on Mars is hard and how the helicopter was built.

Recommended by 10 HN people across 4 months · HN mentions 2020–2021

Topics

Aviation & aerospace engineeringSpace exploration & spaceflightEveryday physics & science demos
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ingenuitynasa jplaerodynamicsmarsveritasium

What people said

kibwen · 2021-02 · Strong recommendation

Here's a really excellent video that answers all your questions: [VIDEO] TL;DW: Martian atmosphere is so sparse that it's equivalent to flying at 100,000 feet on Earth. (The altitude record on Earth is 85,000 feet, set by the SR-71.) In order to fly at all the blades have to spin at nearly the (Martian) speed of sound. The drone wouldn't fly on Earth because the atmosphere is so dense that the blades would never make it up to speed.

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ruchin_k · 2021-09 · Recommendation

Saw this Veritasium youtube video a year ago and the technical complexity required to fly on Mars was shocking to me. Since the air density is super low the blades need to spin at a speed which nears the speed of sound at the blade tips. Crossing the speed of sound causes mini sonic booms which could disrupt the flight entirely. Kudos to NASA scientists for this technological breakthrough! Sharing the video: [VIDEO]

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jshmrsn · 2021-04 · Recommendation

Veritasium has a great video on the helicopter. Early on in the video they explain that Mars’ atmosphere is equivalent in density to Earth’s atmosphere at 100,000 feet, and the record altitude for helicopters on earth is 40,000 feet. [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

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