this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 74 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Flying on Mars is a lot harder than flying on Earth. If you don't believe me, listen to this developer of the flight sim X-Plane. The fact that they were able to get it to work at all is astounding.

[–] match@pawb.social 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

So, we should fly on Jupiter instead, right?

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 34 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Next flight is scheduled for Titan, which is a lot easier. The gravity is lower, but there's a lot more atmosphere, which means our helicopter can be nuclear powered!

[–] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Or leg powered. The gravity is so low and the atmosphere so thick a pilot could pedal power a Cessna Skyhawk. Until he froze to death.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago

That can be solved with some good leg warmer.

[–] Wogi@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I mean flying on Titan would be so easily theoretically a guy with really big wings could reasonably flap himself around

[–] rob_t_firefly@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

Run out and find me a guy with really big wings, I've got a job for him.

[–] gregorum@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

Is that even possible? I mean… with how volatile and exotic the atmosphere is, wouldn’t what a craft would be doing be more akin to how a submarine travels under water? Would “flying” even be the correct term? Wouldn’t it be more like navigating violent torrents of differently-dense gaseous layers? Some of which are (sometimes) liquid?

What would one even call that?

[–] IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

What would one even call that?

Fucking awesome.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Atmospheric pressure changes based on altitude, so there's probably some point where Jupiter's atmosphere that's a similar pressure and temperature to earth.

[–] midnight@kbin.social 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I looked it up, and the region of Jupiter's atmosphere at 1 bar is -100C. So you theoretically you could fly a modified Earth plane, it would just be a bit chilly.

Interestingly, though, Venus does have a zone with Earth-like temperature and pressure.

[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

Thanks! I did a quick search and couldn’t find it but I know that with this crowd I’ll get an answer!

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 1 points 2 years ago

What makes cold temperatures a problem on earth is ice forming frombwater wapour in the atmosphere. No idea what you're likely to get on titan, but probably not that.

[–] chiliedogg@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Supermarine?

[–] palitu@aussie.zone 8 points 2 years ago

That was really interest.

You could hear the excitement in their post!

[–] DogWater@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I think Veritasium has a video about this as well

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Interesting. I was wondering how it would work at all with such a thin atmosphere. The author could chill out a bit though.

[–] Usernameblankface@lemmy.world 57 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Yeah, but they launched it just last year, right?

Cries in old

[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 26 points 2 years ago

2020 was only last year right? … right?!?

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 8 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm still confused about when there was ever a helicopter vs. just a rover

[–] Nighed@sffa.community 10 points 2 years ago (2 children)

To test the concept, now they know that it works they can come up with a dedicated mission that can cover a lot more ground - the rovers are slllloooowwwwwwww.

[–] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 years ago

Sure but can helicopters draw dicks in the sand?

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

Even just for finding the best path for a rover, interesting places for a rover to go, you can make much better use of the extremely limited speed of a rover

[–] btaf45@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

It was really just a drone.

[–] bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 33 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Somewhere in Hollywood, a studio exec is already pitching a sequel to The Martian, with the plot that Matt Daemon finds himself stranded on Mars again and needs to fix the helicopter to fly him back to Earth.

[–] Blum0108@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

I would pay money to see that in theaters

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 25 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Sad. Hopefully a little helicopter like this becomes standard equipment on missions.

[–] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 0 points 2 years ago

I can’t read this sentence without hearing Trump. Sad.

[–] Astrealix@lemmy.world 10 points 2 years ago

NOOOOOOOOOOOO :(

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)
[–] ExcursionInversion@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago
[–] gaifux@lemmy.world 0 points 2 years ago

But it was so real 😥