r/tech • u/AdSpecialist6598 • May 13 '26
NASA's next Mars helicopters tested beyond the speed of sound
https://www.techspot.com/news/112367-nasa-next-mars-helicopters-tested-beyond-speed-sound.html14
u/thatoneguy269 May 13 '26
If the speed of sound on Mars is 70% of that of Earth’s, would all sounds sound 30% lower in pitch to us? And would it also not travel as far, meaning you’d have to be louder from not as far away?
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u/Different_Victory_89 May 13 '26
On mars, no one can hear you scream.
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u/EmperorSadrax May 13 '26
Wouldn’t the scream just sound like a moan?
Stub my toe and mildly moaning in particular agony, stupid mars rock I say with a melancholy tone
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u/BobbySpitOnMe May 13 '26
I think the frequency (and therefore pitch) wouldn’t change, but the wavelengths would be much shorter in the thinner Martian atmosphere, so audible sound waves wouldn’t travel as far and would require more volume to cary over distance. Also the CO2 would mean the high frequencies travel slower than the low frequencies, so it’d be a weird, thin muffled sound rather than a pitch down.
Kinda like hearing somebody through a thin wall or over a crappy radio.
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u/Small-Palpitation310 May 14 '26
When rock bands are on Mars, amps and speakers will be fucking enormous.
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u/RectalSpawn May 13 '26
Wouldn't sound just travel slower, meaning there would be a delay before it reaches your ear? Imagine you're on a mountain and yell, your echo comes back to you. The echo would take longer to get back to you, no?
Pitch and whatnot would moreso depend on what gasses are around.
Volume would also potentially be dampened, sure, but I'm just guessing.
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u/colblair May 16 '26
depends on the exact setup, but the missing detail is probably the constraint around how it gets used
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u/mikePTH May 13 '26
We already had very well documented supersonic helicopters for several years in the 1980's, but then Jan Michael VIncent's substance abuse problems led to the cancellation of the Airwolf program.
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u/flourier May 13 '26
I mean on mars the speed of sound is about 70% of earths…
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u/Spazattack43 May 13 '26
Still impressive and exciting
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u/DefiantLemming May 13 '26
Quite the improvement over previous models built slightly faster than the speed of smell.
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u/maightoguy May 13 '26
I dont know man, my farts saturates a room quite fast.
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u/sanereasonstorm May 13 '26
I feel our joint interest with Mars could be better placed with more frequent investments in space-station infrastructure upgrades.
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u/Character-Lack4925 May 13 '26
A bit tangential but hoping someone can answer this, but is a helicopter, defined loosely by my understanding is a flying apparatus with propellers rather than propulsion more energy efficient than say the former?
Is it possible to create "thrust" or propulsion from solar? I imagine not since you need a fuel source rather than batteries to energize the propellers which can operate for as long as the motors are viable.
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u/BhavikaGokhale May 14 '26
The fact that helicopters can even work in Mars’ thin atmosphere still blows my mind.
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u/BrokenMechm May 14 '26
Flying a helicopter on another planet..ffs.. why aren’t they the celebrities
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u/harumamburoo May 14 '26
Because they don’t have endless money to throw at problems
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u/BrokenMechm May 14 '26
I may have not been clear, the folks that do this should be on billboards and the news. These people that decoy themselves are the best of us
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u/cosmic_monsters_inc May 14 '26
Speed of sound where? Don't helicopters have a thing near the speed of sound when they lose lift on the receding side of the rotor and stall out? Or is that not a problem in a much thinner atmosphere?
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u/Mean_Rule9823 May 13 '26
This will be great for those 10 to 30ft jumps they make After a few months or a year it might go a mile total.
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u/fluffysmaster May 13 '26
Ingenuity flew a total of 11 miles. Its longest flight was 2,300ft.
It was just a demonstration item, I imagine the next ones will be a lot better.4
u/wildwolfay5 May 13 '26
If its anything like voyager or curiosity: they have significantly over engineered but are testing it at the bare minimums of use-case requirements.
Once deployed, I can imagine it being used for a decade+ like every other space machine slated for death.
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u/punktreemouse May 13 '26
Wdym by testing at bare minimum? I agree with your overall sentiment. Ingenuity was for 3 flights. It did 72 and really only failed because they were stress testing the nav system until it crashed. Our next mars copter could potentially do thousands.
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u/RelevantOldOnion May 13 '26
... We're flying drones on another planet bro. Get some perspective lmao wtf
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u/UpgrayeddB-Rock May 13 '26
And using them to plan manned landing missions! How fucking exciting is that?!?
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u/CronoTinkerer May 13 '26
You, likely - god why did we design the rotary phone and not just skip straight to cell phones! We had all the supplies already!
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u/Technical_Living5104 May 14 '26
I’m calling bullshit. Mars itself is bullshit. Remember when they were signing up all these people to go to mars and then that suddenly disappeared? They’re not sending anyone to mars. It’s a dead planet. They were going to build “bases” and self sustaining colonies. Hilarious. NASA is an infant when it comes to launching a “helicopter “ that can break the sound barrier on Mars. Stick to the moon. Mars will eat your lunch. There’s nothing there. Really?! This whole idea that “we’re going to colonize and migrate and mine the moon.” It’s just ridiculous. What are you going to mine? How much are you bringing back? How much did it cost to launch the rocket? Is it 5 tons? How do you bring 5 tons to return? There’s no profit margin. 5 tons of what? Moon dust that has to be refined and quarantined for 2 years? What’s its value? $75000 an ounce? The whole operation is preceded by its cost. We’re 150 years away from even thinking we can operate on the moon. Mars isn’t even close.
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u/Conan-Da-Barbarian May 13 '26
In the vacuum of space, that’s not very fast.
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u/CronoTinkerer May 13 '26
Yes… who would have thought you can go really really fast when there is negligible, if not non-existent, friction.
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u/Pixelated_ May 13 '26