Technology and the amazing machines it brings us

The folks at JPL are in for just more than a few spinchter-clenching moments later this week. Hopefully they didn't mix up feet and meters again so a $2.7 million dollar project doesn't litter the Martian surface with wreckage...

 
now this is AMAZING

us.yahoo.com

How NASA will bring Martian rocks back to Earth for first time ever

Never before have humans brought a piece of another planet back to Earth. "If it sounds complicated, it is," a top NASA scientist said. "If it sounds extreme, it most certainly is."
us.yahoo.com us.yahoo.com

NASA's Perseverance rover successfully pulled off its hazardous landing on the surface of Mars — but more unprecedented challenges lie ahead. A decade from now, in 2031, it will be the first ever to send samples from the red planet back to Earth.

The plan, known as Mars Sample Return, or MSR, involves three missions spanning the next 10 years.

"The idea of bringing a sample back from Mars goes back decades," Ken Farley, the mission's project scientist, said in a statement earlier this month. "We are in a position now where if everything goes according to plan, samples will be coming back to Earth in 2031. That sounds like a long time, but this becoming a reality has always been 10 years away since I was in grad school. Now we are actually doing it."
===========
Much more at the link detailing how they plan on doing this........
 
This one has been shown multiple times on Ancient Aliens...

1616323366256.webp


The Antikythera Mechanism
Image Credit & License: Marsyas, Wikipedia
Explanation: No one knew that 2,000 years ago, the technology existed to build such a device. The Antikythera mechanism, pictured, is now widely regarded as the first computer. Found at the bottom of the sea aboard a decaying Greek ship, its complexity prompted decades of study, and even today some of its functions likely remain unknown. X-ray images of the device, however, have confirmed that a main function of its numerous clock-like wheels and gears is to create a portable, hand-cranked, Earth-centered, orrery of the sky, predicting future star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The corroded core of the Antikythera mechanism's largest gear is featured, spanning about 13 centimeters, while the entire mechanism was 33 centimeters high, making it similar in size to a large book. Recently, modern computer modeling of missing components is allowing for the creation of a more complete replica of this surprising ancient machine.
 

NASA’s Mars Helicopter Achieves First Flight on Another World​

The experimental Ingenuity vehicle completed the short but historic up-and-down flight on Monday morning.

The Ingenuity helicopter recorded an image of its shadow over the surface of Mars as it conducted its first short flight.

The Ingenuity helicopter recorded an image of its shadow over the surface of Mars as it conducted its first short flight. Credit...NASA/JPL-Caltech/Asu/Via Reuters

A small robotic helicopter named Ingenuity made space exploration history on Monday when it lifted off the surface of Mars and hovered in the wispy air of the red planet. It was the first machine from Earth ever to fly like an airplane or a helicopter on another world.

In NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, engineers cheered just before 7 a.m. Eastern time as an image was transmitted back to Earth by the helicopter showing its shadow looming over the Martian surface during its flight, which occurred around 3:30 a.m. on Mars.

The achievement extends NASA’s long, exceptional record of firsts on Mars. But it was also something different for NASA — a high-risk, high-reward project with a modest price tag where failure was an acceptable outcome.

That approach is more similar to that of nimble space companies like SpaceX than large traditional development programs that work through every possible contingency to build a full-scale machine that has to work the first time.

The Perseverance rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter on April 6.

The Perseverance rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter on April 6.Credit...Agence France-Presse, via Nasa/Jpl-Caltech/Msss/Afp Via Getty Images

What happened during the test flight?​

The first flight was a modest up-and-down trip, rising up to an altitude of just 10 feet. There, it hovered for up to 30 seconds and then descended to a landing. Its onboard camera recorded images, helping the navigation system keep the helicopter steady. On the ground more than 200 feet away, the Perseverance’s cameras also recorded the flight.

With the successful test flight, up to four more flights could be attempted. The first three are designed to test basic abilities of the helicopter. The third flight could fly a distance 160 feet and then return.

The final two flights could travel farther, but NASA officials did not want to speculate how much.

NASA wants to wrap up the tests within 30 Martian days of when Ingenuity was dropped off, so that Perseverance can commence the main portion of its $2.7 billion mission. It will leave the helicopter behind and head toward a river delta along the rim of Jezero crater where sediments, and perhaps chemical hints of ancient life, are preserved.

Ingenuity was an $85 million nice-to-have, add-on project but not a core requirement for the success of Perseverance.

Why is flying a helicopter on Mars so difficult?​

There is not much air to push against to generate lift.

At the surface of Mars, the atmosphere is just 1/100th as dense as Earth’s. The lesser gravity — one-third of what you feel here — helps with getting airborne. But taking off from the surface of Mars is comparable to flying at an altitude of 100,000 feet on Earth. No helicopter on our planet has flown that high, and it’s more than two times the typical flying altitude of jetliners.

Engineers celebrated at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as they received confirmation that the Ingenuity helicopter had completed its first short flight on Mars.

Engineers celebrated at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as they received confirmation that the Ingenuity helicopter had completed its first short flight on Mars. Credit...Nasa/Jpl-Caltech/Asu/Via Reuters

Why is NASA flying a helicopter on Mars?​

Until 1997, all of the spacecraft sent to the surface of Mars had been stationary landers. But that year, the Pathfinder mission included something revolutionary for NASA: a wheeled robot. That rover, Sojourner, was roughly the size of a short filing cabinet, and planetary scientists quickly realized the benefits of being able to move around the Martian landscape. Four more NASA rovers, including Perseverance, have since followed to the red planet.

Ingenuity is in essence the aerial counterpart of Sojourner, a demonstration of a novel technology that may be used more extensively on later missions. And demonstrating that the helicopter can fly on Mars may help inform flight attempts on other worlds in our solar system, such as Titan, the moon of Saturn where NASA plans to send a nuclear-powered quadcopter.

Why was the earlier flight postponed?​

NASA planned the first flight of Ingenuity on April 11. But on April 9, there was a problem during a test in which the rotors had spun up to flight speeds without the helicopter taking off. Telemetry indicated that some of the steps during the test took longer than expected, and a timer that keeps watch to make sure nothing goes wrong expired. Ingenuity’s computer then stopped the test before it entered what NASA calls “flight mode.”

The helicopter was safe and undamaged, NASA said, but the engineers needed to understand what happened and devise a solution to the problem.

Ingenuity on April 6, captured by one of the cameras on the Perseverance rover.

Ingenuity on April 6, captured by one of the cameras on the Perseverance rover.Credit...Agence France-Presse, via Nasa/Jpl-Caltech/Afp Via Getty Images

Initially, NASA said that it would need to upgrade Ingenuity’s flight software and that it would not even announce a new date until this week. Although the changes were simple, engineers worried that a coding error could accidentally “brick” the computer, leaving it unresponsive and impossible to fix. Installing and testing the upgraded software also would have taken several days.

In a blog post on Saturday, MiMi Aung, Ingenuity’s project manager, said that the upgrade now appeared not to be necessary. The engineers came up with a simpler, quicker fix — adjusting the commands from Earth to tweak the timing of the transition to flight mode while leaving the helicopter’s software untouched.

This was not a perfect fix — in tests on Earth, it failed about 15 percent of the time — but this solution worked on Friday when Ingenuity was able to complete the full-speed spin test that had been cut short a week earlier.

That paved the way for attempting the first flight sooner, on Monday.

“We also know that if the first attempt does not work on Monday, we can try these commands again,” Ms. Aung wrote, “with good probability that subsequent tries in the days following would work even if the first doesn’t.”
If the current approach did not succeed, the engineers have sent the modified Ingenuity flight software to Perseverance. If needed, the rover could install those changes to the helicopter’s computer.
 
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — NASA’s experimental helicopter Ingenuity rose into the thin air above the dusty red surface of Mars on Monday, achieving the first powered flight by an aircraft on another planet.

The triumph was hailed as a Wright Brothers moment. The mini 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) copter even carried a bit of wing fabric from the Wright Flyer that made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, in 1903.

“Altimeter data confirms that Ingenuity has performed its first flight, the first flight of a powered aircraft on another planet,” said the helicopter’s chief pilot back on Earth, Havard Grip, his voice breaking as his teammates erupted in applause.

It was a brief hop — just 39 seconds — but accomplished all the major milestones.


Project manager MiMi Aung was jubilant as she ripped up the papers holding the plan in case the flight had failed. “We've been talking so long about our Wright Brothers moment, and here it is,” she said.

 
Ground controllers had to wait more than three excruciating hours before learning whether the preprogrammed flight had succeeded 178 million miles (287 million kilometers) away. The first attempt had been delayed a week because of a software error.

When the news finally came, the operations center filled with applause, cheers and laughter. More followed when the first black and white photo from Ingenuity appeared, showing the helicopter's shadow as it hovered above the surface of Mars.

“The shadow of greatness, #MarsHelicopter first flight on another world complete!" NASA astronaut Victor Glover tweeted from the International Space Station.

NASA chose a flat, relatively rock-free patch for Ingenuity’s airfield. Following Monday's success, NASA named the Martian airfield for the Wright brothers.

“While these two iconic moments in aviation history may be separated by time and ... million miles of space, they now will forever be linked," NASA's science missions chief Thomas Zurbuchen announced.

The little chopper with a giant job attracted attention from the moment it launched with Perseverance last July. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger joined in the fun, rooting for Ingenuity over the weekend. “Get to the chopper!” he shouted in a tweeted video, a line from his 1987 sci-fi film “Predator.”

===============
I find this stuff amazing.

I still remember watching the first US manned lift off into orbit in May of 1961 as an amazed 9 year old.
 
I call dibs on the Popcorn Concession!! Will be fun to watch 2 of the richest men in the world to go Mano a Mano!!!

Jeff Bezos’ Rocket Company Challenges NASA Over SpaceX Moon Lander Deal​

The space agency picked Elon Musk’s company over two other bidders to take its astronauts back to the lunar surface.

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, two of the richest men in the world, both with dreams of leading humanity out into the solar system, are fighting over the moon.

On Monday, Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Mr. Bezos, who will step down as Amazon’s chief executive later this year, filed a 50-page protest with the federal Government Accountability Office, challenging a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX from NASA to build a lander for American astronauts to return to the moon.

NASA announced this month that Mr. Musk’s SpaceX was the sole winner in the competition, beating Blue Origin and a third company, Dynetics of Huntsville, Ala., a defense contractor.

Dynetics also filed a protest with the G.A.O. on Monday. The company did not reply to questions about its response. NASA acknowledged it had been notified of the protests. “NASA cannot provide further comment due to pending litigation,” the agency said in a statement emailed by a spokeswoman.
 
wader said:
look at the size of this ship - you have to go to full screen to appreciate it

Click to expand...


Her home port is here in Norfolk - I got to she her (along with about 50 to 100 other drivers) as she sailed over the CBBT (Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel) coming from here she was built (Portsmouth) to Naval Base Norfolk..

People where just pulling over on the bridge to watch her pass. All traffic stopped. Construction workers on the bridge were at attention & saluting her as she passed. Seemed like it took forever. She just kept coming & coming & coming..........

Magnificent ship.
 
 
📱 Fish Smarter with the NYAngler App!
Launch Now

Members online

Total: 425 (members: 2, guests: 423)

Fishing Reports

Latest posts

Latest articles

Back
Top