Testing new high speed rotors for the next generation of Mars helicopters
Ingenuity with its missing blade, at its final resting place on Mars.
Click for original image.
Engineers from JPL and the aerospace company AeroVironment have been testing a new set of high speed rotors that they hope to use on the next generation Mars helicopters, designed to increase their payload capacity by as much as 30%.
The rotors of Ingenuity — the first helicopter to fly on Mars — never spun faster than 2,700 rpm, because at faster speeds it would be approaching the speed of sound (on Mars), when unpredictable things could happen. Engineers are pushing those limits with these new rotors, in a chamber mimicking the thin Martian atmosphere.
The test engineers had taken the precaution of lining part of the chamber with sheet metal in case the blades broke apart during the supersonic experiment. From a control room a few yards away from the chamber, the team watched displays showing data and a view inside the chamber as the rpm climbed as high as 3,750. At that rate, the tips were traveling at Mach 0.98 [just under the Martian speed of sound]. Then the engineers activated a fan inside the chamber that pelted the rotors with headwinds. After each run, they increased in wind velocity for the next run.
The team pushed rotor tip speeds to Mach 1.08, boosting the Mars vehicle’s lift capability by 30%. This breakthrough allows future missions to support heavier scientific payloads, including advanced sensors and larger batteries for extended flight. Next the team tried their luck with the two-bladed SkyFall rotor. Because it is slightly longer than the three-bladed version, only 3,570 rpm was needed to achieve the same near-supersonic speed at the rotor tips prior to introducing the headwinds.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has said he wants to send a fleet of helicopters to Mars in 2028, on that first nuclear-powered mission. Whether or not that mission happens as he proposed, there is ample evidence scientists plan on sending more helicopters there in the next few years (see here, here, here). These tests lay the groundwork for those future missions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Ingenuity with its missing blade, at its final resting place on Mars.
Click for original image.
Engineers from JPL and the aerospace company AeroVironment have been testing a new set of high speed rotors that they hope to use on the next generation Mars helicopters, designed to increase their payload capacity by as much as 30%.
The rotors of Ingenuity — the first helicopter to fly on Mars — never spun faster than 2,700 rpm, because at faster speeds it would be approaching the speed of sound (on Mars), when unpredictable things could happen. Engineers are pushing those limits with these new rotors, in a chamber mimicking the thin Martian atmosphere.
The test engineers had taken the precaution of lining part of the chamber with sheet metal in case the blades broke apart during the supersonic experiment. From a control room a few yards away from the chamber, the team watched displays showing data and a view inside the chamber as the rpm climbed as high as 3,750. At that rate, the tips were traveling at Mach 0.98 [just under the Martian speed of sound]. Then the engineers activated a fan inside the chamber that pelted the rotors with headwinds. After each run, they increased in wind velocity for the next run.
The team pushed rotor tip speeds to Mach 1.08, boosting the Mars vehicle’s lift capability by 30%. This breakthrough allows future missions to support heavier scientific payloads, including advanced sensors and larger batteries for extended flight. Next the team tried their luck with the two-bladed SkyFall rotor. Because it is slightly longer than the three-bladed version, only 3,570 rpm was needed to achieve the same near-supersonic speed at the rotor tips prior to introducing the headwinds.
NASA administrator Jared Isaacman has said he wants to send a fleet of helicopters to Mars in 2028, on that first nuclear-powered mission. Whether or not that mission happens as he proposed, there is ample evidence scientists plan on sending more helicopters there in the next few years (see here, here, here). These tests lay the groundwork for those future missions.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Seems like only yesterday Ingenuity arrived on Mars. We did not know if it would even get off the Martian ground. Well…… It did, for almost three years. Time flies.
So all they did was speed up the same old props that flew on mars and eventually broke.
Did they test them to destruction? Did they cycle them 1000 times to see if they fatigue to destruction?
Granted I like the fact they are planning on going back but. why so long for these tests?
Even I knew counter rotating blades will eventually crash together. Its just the design problem. I hope they go to a four rotor design.