General > General Technical Chat
Mars copter vs Mars plane
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msuffidy:
Since helicopters or drone are essentially energy inefficient, perhaps it would have been easier to make a really wide winged RC plane for Mars? It could legitimately fly around for a while.
igendel:
But takeoff and landing on a "runway" of sand and rocks might be harder. Perhaps a mars VTOL  :)
cdev:
i think that was discussed in the Mars helicopter video from JPL. And indeed, you are right, despite the thinness of the atmosphere it is more efficient that way.

MikeK:
Energy inefficient, where?  On Earth?  Maybe not on Mars?  I would guess that a helicopter on Mars is much more efficient than a plane given that it's relatively easy to get some small rotors spinning fast but not so easy to get a large plane going fast enough to generate lift.  I would even bet that we never get planes on Mars.
msuffidy:
I guess I could have read this first but I just assumed the problem with copters is that they use constant energy to fight gravity and mostly just stay stationary:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_aircraft
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