BeechTalk - BT

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 12:49

[youtube]https://youtu.be/GhsZUZmJvaM[/youtube]

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 13:38

Super cool!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 15:01

Has the FAA issued an Airworthiness Certificate for this helicopter?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 16:02

Username Protected wrote:

Has the FAA issued an Airworthiness Certificate for this helicopter?

And where will they find a certificated mechanic to fix it?

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 16:52

It’s a twin....it must be safer

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 21:44

I consider myself as much a NASA geek as the next guy, but in this case, I gotta ask why? Why try to fly on Mars when the atmosphere is so thin it's 1/100 of Earth's, and did I hear correctly it's got a 90 second duration? What "science" are they hoping to achieve? Would be way less trouble to stick a small camera on an extendable pole.

I think I recall that Mars is 20 "light minutes" away, so it will be almost an hour after they send the "Go" signal before they know if it flew or crashed sending shrapnel 500 yards.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 22:05

Perhaps to survey craters, ravines, slopes, etc where they are unwilling to risk the rover.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 10 Aug 2019, 22:14

I'll put in a plug for JHU/APL's mission to fly a quadcopter on Titan, a moon of Saturn. I worked on the gamma ray and neutron spectrometer portion of the proposal.

https://dragonfly.jhuapl.edu/

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Aug 2019, 08:58

Who pays for stuff like this? If its a private company and their own money, then great go ahead with what ever you wanna do. But if this is public money, then all I think about is how much money is wasted messing around with stuff like this.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Aug 2019, 09:27

Username Protected wrote:

Who pays for stuff like this? If its a private company and their own money, then great go ahead with what ever you wanna do. But if this is public money, then all I think about is how much money is wasted messing around with stuff like this.

NASA pays the California Institute of Technology to manage JPL, a federally funded research and development center in Pasadena, California, with about 6,000 employees and a $2.5 billion 2018 budget. JPL also receives funding for specific projects from NASA and other U.S. government agencies.

https://spacenews.com/shutdowns-impact-on-jpl-caltech/

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Aug 2019, 10:08

Username Protected wrote:

I consider myself as much a NASA geek as the next guy, but in this case, I gotta ask why? Why try to fly on Mars when the atmosphere is so thin it's 1/100 of Earth's, and did I hear correctly it's got a 90 second duration? What "science" are they hoping to achieve? Would be way less trouble to stick a small camera on an extendable pole..

How fast does it fly?

The rovers currently there have a top speed of something like 0.1 mph. Even at 90 seconds a pop I've gotta think this helicopter is going to cover a lot more ground.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Aug 2019, 10:22

Toward the latter half of the video, they specifically spoke about the value of this thing. It's not carrying science, it IS the science. The goal is to find out if a flying vehicle is viable on mars. As mentioned above, the rovers are very slow. A helicopter can survey much more territory much more quickly and can examine areas where rovers can't possible travel. But, before we send a giant helicopter packed full of science experiments, they wanted to build a test machine to make sure the premise was viable.

This is that test machine.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 11 Aug 2019, 11:41

Hope they plan on operating it lean of Peek!

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Aug 2019, 14:12

Username Protected wrote:

Who pays for stuff like this? If its a private company and their own money, then great go ahead with what ever you wanna do. But if this is public money, then all I think about is how much money is wasted messing around with stuff like this.

Funny, Isabella said the same thing to hubby Ferdinand.

Username Protected · **Posted:** 12 Aug 2019, 14:31

Username Protected wrote:

Who pays for stuff like this? If its a private company and their own money, then great go ahead with what ever you wanna do. But if this is public money, then all I think about is how much money is wasted messing around with stuff like this.

What do you propose is a more valuable use of public money ?

Last year uncle sam spent $945B on social security, a great deal of which is wasted on scam disability claims. I'll gladly vote to use the rounding error from that morass to fund advancements in our understanding of the universe.

JPL Will Fly A Helicopter On Mars