Check ignition and may God's love be with you

[iamlost]

Later this month a small coaxial drone helicopter will attempt flight on Mars.

Just over a century ago (1903) the Wright brothers barely flew on earth.

But a few years later (1912) the Titanic sank, the uncle of a friend of my grandparents walked across North America (North Carolina to British Columbia) pulling a two wheel cart, a man opening a haberdashery in northern Alberta walked an 800km (500 mile) round trip over a cleared (no stumps no grading no fill no bridging) trail 8-times that year carrying his stock on his back...

My parents, in 1930s Vancouver, remembered the horse drawn ice wagon bringing blocks of sawdust insulated ice for the ice box...

I remember, as a small child, standing in the street along with what seemed like everyone watching a small star move across the heavens listening to ‘the beeps heard round the world’ on someone’s short wave radio...

Twelve years after glued to a TV watching Neil Armstrong’s ‘one small step’...

And I write and upload this on a handheld computer communicator connected to ‘the world’...

While Voyagers 1 (past edge of solar system) and 2 (at edge solar system) keep on trucking.

The wonders, the changes, have come so many so fast this past century; I hope we can keep up.

Fly little ‘Ginny’, fly, way up high
Spin your rotors, sing out your cry
'Cross the universal sky
—-apologies to Marty Butler, Bob Bilyk, and The Bells.

[lucy24]

And, inevitably...

[xkcd.com...]

[NickMNS]

Given that the use of drones is common nowadays, I feel that many people will simply view this as a "meh!" moment. Just another drone flight, yeah it's on Mars, but really how is this a big deal?

Let me point out that even today, on Earth, helicopters cannot land on mount Everest (~8km altitude).

Thus, I think it is worth mentioning one important difference regarding Mars. It's atmosphere is much thinner than Earth's.

The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to the density found 35 km (22 mi) above the Earth's surface.

That is the equivalent of ~4X Everest, 3X the altitude that plane fly at. Making a drone to fly in those conditions on Earth would be a feat of engineering in it's own right. But NASA (JPL) have done it, and will soon do it again on Mars.

There was recent PBS Nova episode where they showed some of the design challenges they faced. One of those challenges was completing the project in era of COVID-19.
[pbs.org...]

The final point to consider, is that driving on the ground limits where and what we can explore. Being able to explore a planet in flight greatly expands our reach.

This is really something amazing, hopefully it will be successful. I can't wait to see what is found.

The source of the quote from above is from Wikipedia:
[en.wikipedia.org...]

[NickMNS]

Now completely unrelated to the Mars mission, but not to WW. Every result on the page, in the Google SERP for "PBS Nova MArs", was for PBS.org. I did include PBS, but every result? really?

[imgur.com...]

Maybe it was my capitalized "A" in MArs.

[lammert]

<tongue in cheek>Nasa solved the problem of the thin air by reducing gravity on Mars</tongue in cheek>
But still, if you look back, technology has advanced tremendously in just a lifetime. There are still living people on this planet who remember the time @iamlost referred to.

@NickMNS: Regarding your search, it contains two strong brand names of PBS, their company name and one of their prime time series. I would be surprised if spammers had the power to override that SERPs monopoly with shady tactics. Personally if I search for a company product-brand combination, I want the company sites about that product not other sites.

[graeme_p]

The rate of change has slowed.

If you look at the last century, there were huge changes in the first fifty years: jet engines, transistors and integrated circuits, helicopters, nuclear reactors, the contraceptive pill, electronic computers (and mice), lasers and masers, nylon, photocopiers, ball-point pens, tape recorders, mobile phones and CDs, and a lot more.

In the last fifty years we have basically made integrated circuits smaller and cheaper and invented DNA sequencing machines. That is about it.

In terms of Mars, Viking 1's landing 46 years ago was a far greater advance on what was possible 46 years before that than this is over Viking 1.

[lucy24]

The rate of change has slowed.

In ways that you may not even think of. There are dresses in my closet that I have owned for a quarter-century. This would have been flatly impossible in 1921 (try to picture it) ... in 1821 ... in 1721 ... Matter of fact, I’m not sure how many centuries you’d have to go back before you could do it without people pointing and staring.

I am perfectly happy with my ten-plus-year-old computer. Imagine saying that in 2011, or 2001, or ...

[NickMNS]

In the last fifty years we have basically made integrated circuits smaller and cheaper and invented DNA sequencing machines. That is about it.

I'm not sure I agree. I think the difference is that in the last 50 years innovations have become intangible. These new discoveries often occur in less public facing fields like computer science, research medicine, astronomy and other hard sciences. For example, asymmetric cryptography, crispr, machine learning more specifically neural networks, LIGO and the Event Horizon Telescope are just a few examples.

The statement is in fact tantamount to stating.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented"
While not the same, it implies that this point can be reached and furthermore that it is nearing.

One final point is that the impact and utility of our inventions is often not realized until some time after the invention has been made available to a large segment of the public. As our innovations become less tangible, this delay will likely become longer.

[graeme_p]

The statement is in fact tantamount to stating. "Everything that can be invented has been invented"

No its not. In fact I think there is plenty that is possible. I think there are socail, economic and political reasons its not happening. Not possible to discuss within WW rules, I think. Its the sort of thing I like to blog about.

Looking at your examples:

1. Asymmetric cryptography: RSA was first discovered in 1973, but was classified. Only just within the last 50 years.
2. crispr: made possible by one to the two exceptions I mentioned.
3. neural networks: a perceptron was first implemented in 1958.
4. The first VLBI observations were made in 1967.

[mack]

I have been interested in drones for about 8 years, not just buying and flying them, but also building them. Even on Earth, this can be a challenge, trying to do this on another planet will present the engineers with an entirely new set of obstacles to overcome.

One key point you need to take into account when building a drone is that the aircraft needs to know it's position in "space". Generally, this will be done by making use of GPS/Glonass satellites. If you know where you are, and where you want to go, the machine will know what direction it needs to move in. On another planet, where we do not have the benefits of GPS satellite coverage or perfect mapping, this will have involved the input of many great minds.

I guess there will be a lot of AI, machine learning, Lidar and optic flow cameras being used. I am looking forward to seeing more about this and really hope this part of the mission is a success.

Mack.

[graeme_p]

Lucy, my daughter (another Lucy BTW) got given vintage cloths from the 1960s that she liked. its surprising how little things have changed since even then, apart from the aberrations of the 70s.

Men's fashions change more slowly, but even so very little has changed in the last few decades compared to the previous few. Very little has changed since hats and waistcoats went out.

The biggest change has been less use of formal clothing (which i think a bit of a pity - places look nicer with everyone a bit dressed up).

[thecoalman]

I'd have to agree with Nick, so many things are just ubiquitous. 40 years ago thermostats were still mechanical using a spring and mercury filled bulbs Today you can turn it up or down half way around the world.

[NickMNS]

Later this month has arrived. The first test flight was carried out today.
Success!
[mars.nasa.gov...]

Another amazing thing about this was that they were able to film it. It's not like there is person standing on Mars with an iPhone.

[NickMNS]

Here is an earlier pre-flight post. It's a close up of the drone, showing a test of the rotation of the blades. Those are some pretty cool carbon fiber blades.
[mars.nasa.gov...]

[thecoalman]

It was all done in a studio, ;)