NASA

[Sturny]

Quite an amazing achievement today, flying a drone on Mars! Crazy to think a little over 100 years ago we had our first flight here on Earth and now we're doing it on another planet. 

I also learnt today the Perserverance rover will be drilling into Mars and leaving capsule samples to be later launched back to Earth by another rover. It will use x-rays to hunt for fossils (https://www.slashgear.com/mars-2020-perseverance-rover-will-hunt-for-fossils-using-x-rays-23639310/), imagine that! I hope I'm alive the day they find proof of life on another planet. 

[Lanterne Rouge]

6 hours ago, Sturny said:

Quite an amazing achievement today, flying a drone on Mars! Crazy to think a little over 100 years ago we had our first flight here on Earth and now we're doing it on another planet. 

I also learnt today the Perserverance rover will be drilling into Mars and leaving capsule samples to be later launched back to Earth by another rover. It will use x-rays to hunt for fossils (https://www.slashgear.com/mars-2020-perseverance-rover-will-hunt-for-fossils-using-x-rays-23639310/), imagine that! I hope I'm alive the day they find proof of life on another planet. 

Amazing stuff. I`m no scientist but how did they get it to fly? I thought things like drones operated on the same principle as helicopters and relied on air pressure for lift.

[BS2 Red]

9 hours ago, Lanterne Rouge said:

Amazing stuff. I`m no scientist but how did they get it to fly? I thought things like drones operated on the same principle as helicopters and relied on air pressure for lift.

Mars does have "air", it's just really thin. This is an old article but describes the problem. I guess the answer to how they solved it comes down to "bloody clever NASA boffins"

"Like a helicopter, an Earth-bound drone is kept aloft by directing air downward, the resulting thrust counteracting the force of gravity. The good news is that the surface gravity on Mars is barely one-third that of the Earth, so the rotors don’t have to work so hard to combat its effect. The bad news is that the Martian atmosphere is far more tenuous than that of Earth, with a density 60 times lower. So for a given weight of drone, the rotors must be much more effective at generating the downward thrust. That means increasing the size of the rotors, their number, their spin-rate – or some combination. Doubling the number of rotors and their length might do the trick, but the result would be pretty unwieldy."

https://www.sciencefocus.com/space/would-it-be-possible-to-fly-a-drone-on-mars/

[Slacker]

Great.Now we have ballsed up this planet, let's go and start on some others.

[grifty]

2 hours ago, Slacker said:

Great.Now we have ballsed up this planet, let's go and start on some others.

I can assure you that whatever we do to this planet, it will be here long after we have gone. There have been numerous extinction level events which have caused far bigger atmospheric changes that make our industrial efforts look like a puff of smoke in comparison.

[Slacker]

33 minutes ago, grifty said:

I can assure you that whatever we do to this planet, it will be here long after we have gone. There have been numerous extinction level events which have caused far bigger atmospheric changes that make our industrial efforts look like a puff of smoke in comparison.

You are very probably correct. It will  be here after we are gone but in a much worse state than when we arrived. 

[grifty]

1 hour ago, Slacker said:

You are very probably correct. It will  be here after we are gone but in a much worse state than when we arrived. 

And the planet will recover to be another lush life-filled place.

Although we are certainly making the general living conditions worse, even if we fired every nuclear bomb at the same time at various locations around the world its effects would be NOTHING compared to if a Supervolcano erupted within our lifetime. The Earth owns us and it's pretty cool.

[Lanterne Rouge]

On 20/04/2021 at 19:21, grifty said:

And the planet will recover to be another lush life-filled place.

Although we are certainly making the general living conditions worse, even if we fired every nuclear bomb at the same time at various locations around the world its effects would be NOTHING compared to if a Supervolcano erupted within our lifetime. The Earth owns us and it's pretty cool.

One thing that surprised a lot of people (including me) was how quickly nature recovered during the first lockdown, we underestimate the earth`s powers of recovery.

[Sturny]

 

[BS2 Red]

I managed to "acquire" the Apple TV series called "For All Mankind".

I won't spoil anything, but it's set in a world where NASA pushed on after the moon landings, rather than scaling back. If you have Apple TV (or other ways of getting things  ), then I recommend it. 

[Sturny]

22 hours ago, BS2 Red said:

I managed to "acquire" the Apple TV series called "For All Mankind".

I won't spoil anything, but it's set in a world where NASA pushed on after the moon landings, rather than scaling back. If you have Apple TV (or other ways of getting things  ), then I recommend it. 

GreatTV series that! I too managed to "acquire" Apple TV to watch it. 

I think there's also plenty of truth behind it. That if the USA lost the moon landing race it would've been good for further space exploration, as they would keep trying to top each other! 

[redsquirrel]

im keen on all the science and technology on mars at the moment,not so keen on the chinese debris coming back to earth crashing around though

[Port Said Red]

On 11/05/2021 at 16:56, BS2 Red said:

I managed to "acquire" the Apple TV series called "For All Mankind".

I won't spoil anything, but it's set in a world where NASA pushed on after the moon landings, rather than scaling back. If you have Apple TV (or other ways of getting things  ), then I recommend it. 

There's also a series just called Mars, I found it because Nick Cave did the theme for it (182 seconds). I think it was on the Discovery Channel,  and was a mix of drama interspersed with interviews with scientists explaining how certain things would work.

[BS2 Red]

16 hours ago, Sturny said:

I think there's also plenty of truth behind it. That if the USA lost the moon landing race it would've been good for further space exploration, as they would keep trying to top each other! 

Yeah I agree. The Soviets winning the race to the Moon would have spurred the US on to try and beat them to the first base, the first Mars mission etc.