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It took NASA...four years to design a drone.



 
 
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  #1  
Old May 12th 18, 08:48 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
RichA[_6_]
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Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509

  #2  
Old May 15th 18, 07:57 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Quadibloc
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Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.

Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.

And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)

John Savard
  #3  
Old May 16th 18, 07:15 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris.B[_3_]
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Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Tuesday, 15 May 2018 08:57:15 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.

Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.

And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)

John Savard


Finding a mains socket to recharge the Li batteries every ten minutes is likely to be a deal breaker.

I'd have gone for a kite with a soft skeleton. They could run one up in a quarter of an hour if they "borrowed" the Webb's billion dollar sewing machine.
  #4  
Old May 16th 18, 01:54 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
[email protected]
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Posts: 29
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 2:48:16 AM UTC-5, RichA wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


A drone which, if it works, would do things no other drone has done on Earth.
  #5  
Old May 17th 18, 06:59 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris.B[_3_]
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Posts: 1,001
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Tuesday, 15 May 2018 08:57:15 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.

Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.

And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)

John Savard


Mars' atmospheric pressure is 6% of Earth's. How big do the rotors need to be to support themselves, before they offer any useful lift for the imaging platform. And how will they cope in a Martian storm?
  #6  
Old May 17th 18, 09:01 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
RichA[_6_]
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Posts: 1,076
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Tuesday, 15 May 2018 02:57:15 UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.

Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.

And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)

John Savard


So why not contract a drone mfg instead of (likely) spending $20 for every $1 the experienced manufacturer would? Isn't that what Space-X is all about?
  #7  
Old May 17th 18, 03:02 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris L Peterson
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Posts: 10,007
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Thu, 17 May 2018 01:01:19 -0700 (PDT), RichA
wrote:

On Tuesday, 15 May 2018 02:57:15 UTC-4, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.

Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.

And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)

John Savard


So why not contract a drone mfg instead of (likely) spending $20 for every $1 the experienced manufacturer would? Isn't that what Space-X is all about?


SpaceX is about engineering, not science. There is a lot of
fundamental new aeronautical science involved in designing any
lift-based aircraft that operates in an atmosphere 1/60 as dense as
Earth's. That's the sort of expertise NASA has, and conventional
makers of aircraft or drones do not. We do not generally contract out
fundamental scientific development.
  #8  
Old May 17th 18, 06:37 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Quadibloc
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Posts: 7,018
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 11:59:29 PM UTC-6, Chris.B wrote:
On Tuesday, 15 May 2018 08:57:15 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.


Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.


And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)


Mars' atmospheric pressure is 6% of Earth's.


I just checked. 0.6% of Earth's, I'm afraid.

John Savard
  #9  
Old May 17th 18, 08:26 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris L Peterson
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Posts: 10,007
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Thu, 17 May 2018 10:37:52 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
wrote:

On Wednesday, May 16, 2018 at 11:59:29 PM UTC-6, Chris.B wrote:
On Tuesday, 15 May 2018 08:57:15 UTC+2, Quadibloc wrote:
On Saturday, May 12, 2018 at 1:48:16 AM UTC-6, RichA wrote:


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44090509


It is possible the guys working on it also had other duties.


Note that there were likely not as many people working on the project as would
be working at a drone manufacturer designing their next product.


And this drone had to be super reliable, and it had to work in the atmosphere of
Mars, which, as the article noted, is a *lot* less dense than that of Earth.
(The article said 100x; I thought it was more than that.)


Mars' atmospheric pressure is 6% of Earth's.


I just checked. 0.6% of Earth's, I'm afraid.


That's true for pressure, although the density is more relevant to the
performance of wings (moving or fixed). The atmospheric density at the
surface of Mars averages 1.6% that of Earth's. That's about the same
as the density at a height of 30 km on Earth. That's right in the area
that the highest winged aircraft have flown.
  #10  
Old May 18th 18, 06:26 AM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris.B[_3_]
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Posts: 1,001
Default It took NASA...four years to design a drone.

On Thursday, 17 May 2018 21:26:06 UTC+2, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Thu, 17 May 2018 10:37:52 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc.



I just checked. 0.6% of Earth's, I'm afraid.


That's true for pressure, although the density is more relevant to the
performance of wings (moving or fixed). The atmospheric density at the
surface of Mars averages 1.6% that of Earth's. That's about the same
as the density at a height of 30 km on Earth. That's right in the area
that the highest winged aircraft have flown.


I seem to have moved a decimal point after deliberately checking before posting. Just the price of living on a world with 70 billion people and a diameter of 75000 miles. More of a Super Earth than a Pale Blue Dot. It's fortunate the Sun is only 9.3 million miles away or we couldn't possibly feed them all. I hear Google wants to raise the speed limit to 550mph for self driving cars and a Big Mac now weighs a whopping 25lbs not including the attached litter. ;-)
 




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