Because the Martian atmosphere is only about 1% as dense as Earth's (but her gravity is out of proportion, to the atmosphere -- at about 1/6th of Earth's -- that's. . . heavy lifting!), these rotors must spin much faster -- much, much faster -- to generate adequate lift, for flight operations -- with real payloads aboard. And the lift dynamics must remain stable -- even in Barsoomian dust devils, should these choppers fly through them.
This, in turn, means we'll need rotor blades that won't disintegrate, when spinning at more than the speed of sound. Yikes.
That is a materials engineering challenge of the first order. One the NASA team is now tackling. Here's that story:
. . .The rotor blades that will carry NASA’s next-generation helicopters to new Martian heights broke the sound barrier during March tests at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Data from the tests, which took place in a special chamber that can simulate environmental conditions on the Red Planet, indicate that the fastest traveling part of the rotor blade, the tips, can be accelerated beyond Mach 1 without breaking apart. Data gathered from 137 test runs will enable engineers to design aircraft capable of carrying heavier payloads, including science instruments.
“NASA had a great run with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, but we are asking these next-generation aircraft to do even more at the Red Planet,” said Al Chen, Mars Exploration Program manager at JPL. “That’s not an easy ask. While everything about Mars is hard, flying there is just about the hardest thing you can do. That’s because its atmosphere is so incredibly thin that it is hard to generate lift, and yet Mars has significant gravity. . . .”
Yep -- I love a challenge -- where science is at the forefront.
These brilliant and fine people. . . will meet the moment. I know they will. Onward. [And yes, I went off, in search of some good news today. . . we sorely need it.]
नमस्ते
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