Mlu - That's A Blog.

I'm feeling the same! Not sure if they can handle drawing avatars for the whole staff though, we're like at least 12 people!

not me changing the avatar again...

can’t have shit

@cyle the bearded wizard

Sayin a lil' prayer for the Tumblr Infra team, which I assume is two unwashed interns, a reanimated 15th century wizard, and a cron job that's been running since 2009

Mars Helicopter: 6 Things to Know About Ingenuity

When our Perseverance Mars rover lands on the Red Planet on Feb. 18, 2021, it will bring along the Ingenuity helicopter.

This small-but-mighty craft is a technology demonstration that will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Its fuselage is about the size of a tissue box, and it weighs about 4 pounds (1.8 kg) on Earth. It started out six years ago as an implausible prospect and has now passed its Earthbound tests.

Here are six things to know about Ingenuity as it nears Mars:

1. Ingenuity is an experimental flight test.

This Mars helicopter is known as a technology demonstration, which is a project that aims to test a new capability for the first time with a limited scope. Previous technology demonstrations include Sojourner, the first Mars rover, and the Mars Cube One (MarCO) CubeStats that flew by Mars.

Ingenuity does not carry any science instruments and is not part of Perseverance’s science mission. The only objective for this helicopter is an engineering one – to demonstrate rotorcraft flight in the thin and challenging Martian atmosphere.

2. Mars won’t make it easy for Ingenuity.

Mars’ atmosphere is around 1% the density of Earth’s. Because of that lack of density, Ingenuity has rotor blades that are much larger and spin faster than a helicopter of Ingenuity’s mass here on our planet. It also must be extremely light to travel to Mars.

The Red Planet also has incredibly cold temperatures, with nights reaching minus 130 degrees Fahrenheit (-90 degrees Celsius) in Jezero Crater, where our rover and helicopter will land. Tests on Earth at the predicted temperatures indicate Ingenuity’s parts should work as designed, but the real test will be on Mars.

3. Ingenuity relies on Perseverance for safe passage to Mars and operations on the Martian surface.

Ingenuity is nestled sideways under Perseverance’s belly with a cover to protect the helicopter from debris during landing. The power system on the Mars 2020 spacecraft periodically charges Ingenuity’s batteries during the journey to the Red Planet.

In the first few months after landing, Perseverance will find a safe place for Ingenuity. Our rover will shed the landing cover, rotate the helicopter so its legs face the ground and gently drop it on the Martian surface.

4. Ingenuity is smart for a small robot.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will not be able to control the helicopter with a joystick due to delays communicating with spacecraft across interplanetary distances. That means Ingenuity will make some of its own decisions based on parameters set by its engineering team on Earth.

During flight, Ingenuity will analyze sensor data and images of the terrain to ensure it stays on a flight path designed by project engineers.

5. The Ingenuity team counts success one step at a time.

Ingenuity’s team has a long list of milestones the helicopter must pass before it can take off and land in the Martian atmosphere.

Surviving the journey to and landing on Mars

Safely deploying onto the Martian surface from Perseverance’s belly

Autonomously keeping warm through those intensely cold Martian nights

Autonomously charging itself with its solar panel

Successfully communicating to and from the helicopter via the Mars Helicopter Base Station on Perseverance

6. If Ingenuity succeeds, future Mars exploration could include an ambitious aerial dimension.

The Mars helicopter intends to demonstrate technologies and first-of-its-kind operations needed for flying on Mars. If successful, these technologies and flight experience on another planet could pave the way for other advanced robotic flying vehicles.

Possible uses of a future helicopter on Mars include:

A unique viewpoint not provided by current orbiters, rovers or landers

High-definition images and reconnaissance for robots or humans

Access to terrain that is difficult for rovers to reach

Could even carry light but vital payloads from one site to another

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

Thank you, /r/ProgrammerHumor, I love you endlessly.

Redditors competing to make the worst volume sliders possible...

Another idea: Communities on Tumblr

For a while now folks have asked us for better ways to connect with other people who share similar interests. We’re listening, and at Labs we’ve been looking into fulfilling that need, Tumblr style.

Introducing Communities, a new place to connect with others on Tumblr:

Here in Labs, we’re working on big ideas that could transform how Tumblr is used, while keeping that Tumblr vibe alive. You can see one of those ideas above. We’re calling it “Communities”, a new dedicated space on Tumblr for people to share and discuss all the content they love. Communities can cover topics like your favorite show, artist, movie, video game, your school, your board game group, friend group, big or small, whatever you want.

Each Community has their own semi-private safer space away from the regular dashboard where you can interact with other Tumblr users who share the same interests and passions as you. There are moderators and members (you!), rules, and privacy settings. Each community has its own feed of posts from members, separate from your Following and For You feeds. Interactions within community spaces stay there and replies will work more like a traditional comment section. Folks will be able to reblog posts into a community, but not out — at least not yet.

We’re very excited for you to try it, and help define the best path forward. What we have is a prototype to help us validate the idea, but there’s still plenty of questions that need answering. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be reaching out to people across Tumblr, and the internet at large, to try our prototype. Based on the feedback we get, we’ll iterate on the idea to see what resonates best with all of you on Tumblr.

If this sounds interesting, please like, reblog, or reply to this post, and we’ll invite you to beta test this feature when we roll it out to a wider Tumblr audience, as a little perk for following the Labs blog.

Stay tuned for more!

@cyle is not actually human. Don't be fooled, people!

hello there!

humans is an official blog run by actual people who work at tumblr. we made this blog so that we can reply to y'all in the notes of various posts.

actual humans:

Cyle (@cyle, he/him)

i like cheeseburgers

James (@macmanx, he/him)

Happiness Engineer at Automattic, GIF-maker on Tumblr, Trumpet in Polyhedra, and general doer of things at place.

Jas (@jezzuminah, she/her)

Artist on Tumblr, and Walking Encyclopedia. I've screamed about Chinese history at McD for 5 hours before (feel free to ignore me if that happens)

Lucila (she/her)

I refused to eat cows in the 80s, before it was cool

Emily (@emilyfowler, she/her)

lied about my age to make my first tumblr account and now I work to make sure kids don't lie about their age to make their first tumblr accounts

Bea (@key, she/her)

i like building towns for cute animals for my silly mental health and hyperfixating on things i learned about on tumblr.

Cates (@adulthoodisokay, she/her)

Secret old and extremely online. If something's trending on Tumblr I probably know why.

Jess (@theinex, she/her)

I have a dog named Kirby who loves watching the Food Network (obvi Guy Fieri). If there’s something weird, wild, but most importantly fun, happening on this Hellsite (affectionate), I’m probably one of the wizards behind the curtain.

Rocco (@photosbyrocco, he/him)

i make a lot of buttons here on tumblr dot com

Caroline (she/her)

i'm here for kpop and memes

kat (@kat, they/she)

i use [tumblr].

Elena (@reallyserious, she/her)

Recovering single-subject-Tumblr creator.

Lindsay (she/her)

Some of my favorite things are immersive podcasts (Mission to Zyxx 🛸, Seincast), gaming in VR, and learning alongside my fellow humans.

street crossiants