by MarkBour » Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:32 am
Cousin Ricky wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 2:31 pm
APOD Robot wrote: ↑Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:06 am
Ingenuity has a weight of 1.8 kilograms or 4 pounds on Earth. That corresponds to a weight of 0.68 kilograms or 1.5 pounds on Mars.
On Mars, Ingenuity will have a mass of 1.8 kilograms. Even your links make that clear. I don’t know that “weight in kilograms” has any meaning outside our informal usage in an earthbound context. Even on Earth, the ratio of kilogram to pound varies depending on location.
Perhaps we should teach the general public—at least those who are willing to go metric—about newtons?
Valid points. But I want to make sure that the relevance of the APOD's exact opposite emphasis is not lost on readers.
Note the end of the sentence in the APOD caption: "it will attempt to make the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet in the thin martian atmosphere, 1 percent as dense as Earth's."
So, those blades are going to have to generate enough lift to get this vehicle airborne in an atmosphere that is hardly there. The one thing that is acting in its favor, is that it will only have to generate force to counteract 0.38 G (3.721 m/s
2).
I'm pretty sure it will lift off and fly well, because I've great confidence in NASA's engineers to have everything figured out.
Today would have been a great day to have tried it. After all, the date of this APOD is 4 ... 3 ... 21 . [
]
[quote="Cousin Ricky" post_id=312156 time=1617460308 user_id=141376]
[quote="APOD Robot" post_id=312148 time=1617422760 user_id=128559]
Ingenuity has a weight of 1.8 kilograms or 4 pounds on Earth. That corresponds to a weight of 0.68 kilograms or 1.5 pounds on Mars.
[/quote]
On Mars, Ingenuity will have a mass of 1.8 kilograms. Even your links make that clear. I don’t know that “weight in kilograms” has any meaning outside our informal usage in an earthbound context. Even on Earth, the ratio of kilogram to pound varies depending on location.
Perhaps we should teach the general public—at least those who are willing to go metric—about newtons?
[/quote]
Valid points. But I want to make sure that the relevance of the APOD's exact opposite emphasis is not lost on readers.
Note the end of the sentence in the APOD caption: "it will attempt to make the first powered flight of an aircraft on another planet in the thin martian atmosphere, 1 percent as dense as Earth's."
So, those blades are going to have to generate enough lift to get this vehicle airborne in an atmosphere that is hardly there. The one thing that is acting in its favor, is that it will only have to generate force to counteract 0.38 G (3.721 m/s[sup]2[/sup]).
I'm pretty sure it will lift off and fly well, because I've great confidence in NASA's engineers to have everything figured out.
Today would have been a great day to have tried it. After all, the date of this APOD is 4 ... 3 ... 21 . [ :D ]