Chinese Mars Helicopter Options

[Bill Harris]

The Chinese are developing an "Ingenuity Clone" Mars helicopter for future missions. It seems that they are following a tried-and-true concept for the helicopter; I halfway expected to see a DJI Phantom Menace on steroids.

https://spacenews.com/china-is-developing-i...ars-helicopter/

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[rlorenz]

The Chinese are developing an "Ingenuity Clone" Mars helicopter for future missions. It seems that they are following a tried-and-true concept for the helicopter;

Ironically, the rotor blades on this vehicle appear not to have 'Chinese weights' to reduce the servo loads on the rotor swashplate actuators....
see, e.g. https://insideunmannedsystems.com/inside-in...-aerovironment/

[Bill Harris]

That is ironic. These balance weights also reduce flutter with the high lift rotor and may not be used on this terrestrial prototype. Although similar there appear to be differences. it will be interesting to see how they implement this efficient and compact coaxial design.

--Bill