Helicopters on Mars

[mistermack]

Mars rovers are so bloody slow. Why don't they send one of those drones up with the Mars probes?
I know the atmosphere is thin, but the gravity is about half of ours.

A little drone could scout for the rover and tell it where to go.

Not my idea. They are actually working on it. A solar powered drone helicopter that can fly for a couple of minutes a day, on a days charge of it's solar battery :

http://www.popsci.com/should-we-put-drone-mars

The big problem's going to be making sure that it lands the right way up, and not in permanent shade. They can already make it fly in Mars atmosphere, by revving at 2,000 revs.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnDu2_aWISg#t=13[/youtube]

My suggestion would be to have a camera on a balloon, that they could reel in or let out, and keep it attached to the rover. But maybe it might be affected by the wind, or maybe balloons don't work on Mars.

[pErvinalia]

What's the wind like on Mars?

[klr]

The wind can get up to several hundred kmh, during storms that can go on for months.

Also, I suspect that given the thin atmosphere, helicopter drone couldn't carry much of a payload, even given the gravity (.38g).

But I don't see any reason why they could not be employed as part of a mission, maybe being deployed from a "mother" rover.

[mistermack]

What's the wind like on Mars?

Bloody cold. That for sure.

I'm not sure that they can make a balloon material that stays flexible at minus eighty.

Anyway, I suppose, thinking about it, that it would have to be a big balloon to have enough lift to support it's own weight and a camera. Because the atmosphere is so thin, it will only displace less than one percent of the weight of gas that it would on the Earth.

[cronus]

Fly by wire. Only needs to go up and come down a few hundred feet for a weeks terrain scouting. Rovers don't go that fast nor will they any time soon. So no need for anything fancy, up and down. The key is to have a bloody good camera and excellent optics.