RSS- The battle for Ocheretyne
- Supreme Court oral arguments to be heard on April 25 about presidential immunity for official acts
- Nasa’s Voyager-1 sends usable data from deep space
- The Wondrous Oak
- Three Seas Summit: Vilnius 2024
- Tit for tat until it all goes boom
- Deadly H5N1 avian influenza strain detected on mainland Antarctica
- “BYD is launching its next-gen Blade EV battery soon with more range and even lower cost”
- Iran launches air attacks on Israel
- ISW on the developing Ukrainian defense industrial base and Russias strikes on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure
NASA is targeting no earlier than April 8 for the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter to make the first attempt at powered, controlled flight of an aircraft on another planet. Before the 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) rotorcraft can attempt its first flight, however, both it and its team must meet a series of daunting milestones.
Now this is going to be great! . . . If it flies that is.
If it doesn’t fly I hope it blows up real good.
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-prepares-for-first-flight
I’ll be rooting for Ingenuity. Those ultralight carbon-wrapped fiber legs were designed and manufactured by a couple of kids who went to high school in my small town. Their factory is not here, they now have a place up in Skagit County’s tulip country.
Those legs are tubes, not rods. And they were under extreme pressure by JPL to keep the weight to an absolute minimum. So I am hoping there are no hard landings.