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  • Jan, NASA has at least one project to do exactly that, though I'm not sure of its current status: http://marsairplane.larc.nasa.gov

    group_planes_480.jpg

  • Can't fly on Mars reasonably.  Almost as much gravity with much thinner air.

  • Innovative repairs:

    Using zipties to hold the servo connectors together.

    The un-innovative solution would be simply to use one of the many clips made to serve the same purpose. ;)

  • I thought this bit of the report was telling:

    "

    The last flights were not without a few glitches that are often the hallmark of experimental flight testing and software development, ranging from computer cooling issues in the ground control station van, to a non-responsive left actuator on the DROID research aircraft. The latter challenge forced the project team to disassemble the aircraft’s wing, where they discovered wires had separated. Innovative repairs were made in the field requiring a creative use of the minimal resources available, and the aircraft was again ready to fly."

    Seems very familiar 'Innovative repairs' - that will be twisting the wires together then...

  • Developer

    so what happens when that tree grows 5 more meters

  • The sensor making this work is GPS and probably baro altimeter, which APM already has. It's sensors that are needed, it's a large terrain data base on board the aircraft. The android had a terrain map in it's vast flash memory. I took a team over a year to do this?

  • Maybe we can use altimeter data from Google Earth to do the same thing

  • Moderator

    @Grant, This was discussed a while back... they have an onboard representation of the entire Earth's terrain.

  • Did the article say what sensors they used? I read it but didn't see anything that said how they were actually detecting the ground.

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