What will the Mars helicopter use for magnetic heading?

IK04

IK04

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The next Mars mission will include a coaxial helicopter That will make 90 second flights in the Martian atmosphere.


Is there a magnetosphere on Mars, like on Earth? Will a magnetometer work?

It uses surface recognition for navigation in a small area, but how does it orient itself with the planet?

Any space scientists out there have a clue?
 
This is pretty cool!! Mars no longer has a magnetosphere I think. There was one which allowed more of an atmosphere- a long time ago. I wonder if it is going to use the accelerometer combined with the ground visual analysis and report back to rover and the rover essentially tells it where it is.
Also does it really matter if it knows where it is? I don’t think it is collecting anything physical.
I was surprised by only 90 second flight time
Though.
 
I think this one is mostly a proof of concept vehicle, so it doesn't really matter where it goes. However, some simple celestial inputs (maybe a 360° camera during the night?) should be able to orient the vehicle in a matter of minutes relative to the planet surface.
 
denverpilot said:
Does it actually matter?

Is there like a restaurant or a Sonic drive in that they’re trying to use Waze to find or something? :)

Where do you want to go on Mars that you need to navigate to?
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Mapping, marking points of interest for further study. As mentioned earlier, return to a charging station. @Stan Cooper mentioned a couple of ways it could be done.
 
There is no charging station. It uses solar cells to charge all day long for one short flight.
 
For a 90-second flight, how lost can it get?

One way would be to provide some means of keeping track of its relative bearing and distance to the mothership. Something like an ADF/NDB combined with DME ought to work.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
GPS, obviously! (But possibly an INS, which could be awesomely accurate for short flights relative to the takeoff area.)
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So, they're going to put a GPS satellite constellation in orbit around Mars so a helicopter can navigate? That sounds impractical and ridiculously expensive to me.
 
We definitely need to do something about current battery energy density limitations. There are lots of big tech enterprises working on that problem.
 
Caramon13 said:
So, 2000 ft per day, 90 second flight time, that's 15 mph at about 22 fps. Then it's out of battery power for 24 hours? That's horrible.
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The atmosphere there isn’t particularly kind to fling wings, I assume.

Just wait until you see how many days a Martian “year” the thing is grounded for weather. :)
 
It figures that Mars will get Amazon drone delivery before the area where I live. At least I have a runway in my back yard.
 
Caramon13 said:
So, 2000 ft per day, 90 second flight time, that's 15 mph at about 22 fps. Then it's out of battery power for 24 hours? That's horrible.
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Batteries are heavy and weight is king when it comes to getting things out into space. I also imagine the amount of data being gathered will be massive and the NASA folks will want to be able to digest it all before flying off too far in case they want to investigate something.

Is there a projected length of time this helicopter will be functioning?

If it flies every day for a year, its a significant distance.
 
Very Interesting. They should check their facts on the highest an airplane has flown though. 85k? I think not.
 
Also... MAN I will be stoked when they go to Mars. How cool will that be.
 
TipTanks said:
Very Interesting. They should check their facts on the highest an airplane has flown though. 85k? I think not.
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U-2: 70,000
SR-71: 85,000

rumors that both can go higher. What aircraft can go higher - not classified?
 
Regarding the short flight times...Mars doesnt have much of an atmosphere so the amount of work needed to make the flights is going to be a lot more than on Earth. Short flight times should be expected.
 
And necessarily small solar cell to recharge (you have to lift it with you) and also data send/receive for each mission.
 
Stan Cooper said:
So, they're going to put a GPS satellite constellation in orbit around Mars so a helicopter can navigate? That sounds impractical and ridiculously expensive to me.
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'twas a joke. The INS would, however, work.
 
Datadriver said:
U-2: 70,000
SR-71: 85,000

rumors that both can go higher. What aircraft can go higher - not classified?
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The absolute altitude record for an airbreathing jet (the X-15 was rocket powered) was set on August 31, 1977 by Aleksandr Fedotov in a MiG Ye-266 (123,520 ft.).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25

On 31 August 1977, Ye-266M again flown by Fedotov, set the recognized absolute altitude record for a jet aircraft under its own power.[20] He reached 37,650 metres (123,520 ft) at Podmoskovnoye, USSR in zoom climb (the absolute altitude record is different from the record for sustained altitude in horizontal flight). The aircraft was actually a MiG-25RB re-engined with the powerful R15BF2-300. It had earlier been part of the program to improve the aircraft's top speed that resulted in the MiG-25M prototype.[11]
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I am just guessing that since there is gravity then there would be a magnetic north and south pole on Mars.
 
Zeldman said:
I am just guessing that since there is gravity then there would be a magnetic north and south pole on Mars.
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That's not exactly how that works.

The magnetic field on Earths caused by the molten iron core. Mars' core, as best we can tell, has solidified, so no magnetic field.
 
EdFred said:
That's not exactly how that works.

The magnetic field on Earths caused by the molten iron core. Mars' core, as best we can tell, has solidified, so no magnetic field.
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The quote in post #20 calls Mars' magnetic field "inconsistent."
 
Zeldman said:
I am just guessing that since there is gravity then there would be a magnetic north and south pole on Mars.
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The magnetic fields of planets are not related to gravity.
 
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