火星直升机坏了，一架前直升机，现在被遗弃了，孤零零的

火星直升机坏了，一架前直升机，现在被遗弃了，孤零零的

时间戳记：26年2024月9日，凌晨28:XNUMX
源节点： 3084561

Space fans prepare yourselves, for I have some sad news: NASA’s Mars-based helicopter, Ingenuity, has flown its last, thanks to a broken rotor blade. It is now an ex-helicopter, or if you prefer, the little space helicopter that no longer could. Pour one out for a true original, and give mad respect to the first aircraft on another planet that shall take to the skies no more.

After completing its 72nd flight on the Martian surface, NASA scientists reviewing images from Ingenuity’s onboard camera made the sad discovery that one or more of its rotor blades were damaged (via Gizmodo的）并决定直升机将不再能够飞行。 

这标志着这架极其坚固的小型飞机的终结，该飞机最初仅设计用于进行五次试飞，但现在被扔进了孤独的火星墓地。 死技术 和 破灭的梦想.

Alright, it’s a bit much, I know. But Ingenuity’s story is one of engineering triumph, and it’s likely to go down in history as one of the more successful tests of exploratory vehicles catapulted to the red planet. 

2021 年 XNUMX 月推出，贴在机腹上 毅力号火星车 (charmingly nicknamed “Percy”), the 19-inch tall helicopter weighed in at a miniscule four pounds, and once detached from its host became the first powered and controlled aircraft to fly on another planet.

While it’s tempting to think of Ingenuity as a glorified drone, the 工程挑战 that needed to be overcome to allow a helicopter to fly in the thin Martian atmosphere were immense. Mars has a 95% carbon dioxide atmosphere that’s only 0.6% the density of the air on Earth, which meant that Ingenuity had to be extraordinarily light and generate huge amounts of lift for its size in order to fly at all.

这是通过采用双对转转子设计和在结构中有效使用碳纤维来实现的，就是这样，以及 六个强大的直流电机 和六块太阳能充电的索尼锂离子电池，这意味着 Ingenuity 以其小巧的尺寸提供了惊人的升力。

有趣的是，飞行持续时间并不限于顶部安装的太阳能电池板的可用电池电量，而是受到电机的热限制，因为它们的温度从远低于冰点上升到超过 100 摄氏度 在短途飞行中. That’s one of those NASA facts that makes you want to punch the air isn’t it, or is that just me?

不，那就只有我了。继续。

独创性还必须能够自主控制，而美国宇航局工程师上传了 精确指示 在每次飞行前向小型直升机询问参数应该是什么样子，之后就取决于机载计算机上的算法来调整以适应不断变化的环境条件。这个系统运行得非常好，Ingenuity 能够捕捉到许多 令人惊叹的照片 在 72 次飞行中使用两个机载摄像机拍摄了火星表面的情况。

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Sadly, it seems that Ingenuity shall fly no more, although it shall likely go down in history as another of NASA’s Mars exploration devices that not just met their goals, but exceeded them as well. Perseverance is still merrily chugging away on the Martian surface, recently passing the 1,000 个火星日标记，并没有显示出停止探索和调查这颗神秘星球的使命的迹象。 

与此同时，好奇号是早期的火星探测器，其设计与毅力号类似，自 2012 年 XNUMX 月以来一直在运行，并且仍在定期发回更新和照片，其中一些可以在 此处.

总有一天，我们都会像风中的尘埃一样消逝。但很少有像小型火星直升机那样被人们铭记的，所以今天，我们集体纪念它。 

安息吧，小伙伴。你将不再飞翔，但你对科学产生的影响，以及你发回的激发我们集体想象力的图像，将在未来的岁月里继续存在。

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