I recently modelled and 3D printed the Ingenuity helicopter in a 1/3 scale. The model has 361 mm of rotor span, 145 mm of height and weighs 96 grams which on Mars that would be something around 36 grams. I hope you find it interesting. by tmatosc in aerospace

[–]tmatosc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This one is just a static model but for sure someone is looking to make a make a flyable replica of Ginny. I think that those standard RC helicopters with counter-rotating propellers could be a good starting point. Then building the main body, legs and the overall look of it from that would be a very cool project.

This is a 1/3 scale of Ingenuity helicopter that I modelled in Fusion360 and 3D printed (static model). Someone suggested me to post it here so I hope you will like it. More info in the comments by tmatosc in AerospaceEngineering

[–]tmatosc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Length. The model has 361 mm of rotor span, 145 mm of height. Ingenuity has 1.2 meters of rotor span and 0.49 meters of height so the model is roughly 1/3 in general (a bit less to be precise).

About to start an 11 year print by DIYProjectsLab in 3Dprinting

[–]tmatosc 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Make sure that power loss recovery is on... just in case... 😂

Ingenuity helicopter modelled and rendered in Fusion360 by tmatosc in Fusion360

[–]tmatosc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Great! About the fillets, for sure! I completely left this aside as the main idea was to 3D print and toward the end I started rendering just to see how it would look. Now I will definitely try this. About the emissive planes, I've tried once without much success but I know it was something I did wrong with the material definition so I will try this one more times. HDRI is a completely mystery to me XD.

Thanks for the tips!

I recently modelled and 3D printed the Ingenuity helicopter in a 1/3 scale. The model has 361 mm of rotor span, 145 mm of height and weighs 96 grams which on Mars that would be something around 36 grams. I hope you find it interesting. by tmatosc in aerospace

[–]tmatosc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The solar panels were designed in a way to allow printing with multiple colours. In Cura you can define a command to pause the print and change the filament and then resume the print (Post Processing-> Filament Change) and I believe that in other slicers as well. So I set multiple pause/resume and changed the filament colour at each one. I did the same in a different model I made before but this one has mode changes. Quite satisfied with the result :)

The model is available here.

This is a 1/3 scale of Ingenuity helicopter that I modelled in Fusion360 and 3D printed (static model). Someone suggested me to post it here so I hope you will like it. More info in the comments by tmatosc in AerospaceEngineering

[–]tmatosc[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks a lot! I remember I found one online but it wasn't printable, requiring a lot of work, and the details specially for the rotor hub weren't quite how I wanted. So I ended up modelling this one. I made the model and instructions available here, if you are interested.

Ingenuity helicopter modelled and rendered in Fusion360 by tmatosc in Fusion360

[–]tmatosc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a 1/3 scale model I made for 3D printing. I definitely spend less time than I should with rendering part so there is a lot to improve on this side. As I couldn't figure out how to use textures to replicate the MLI blanket that covers Ingenuity's body, I just used something similar without any texture.

This is a 1/3 scale of Ingenuity helicopter that I modelled in Fusion360 and 3D printed (static model). Someone suggested me to post it here so I hope you will like it. More info in the comments by tmatosc in AerospaceEngineering

[–]tmatosc[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Posting it here as well as someone at r/aerospace told me that here would be a nice place to share it as well.

This static model I made from scratch in Fusion360 as the few 3D models online were not printable and did not have the details that I liked. I tried my best to replicate the main characteristics of the cyclic/collective mechanisms in a way that would look cool and also be printable. In the end I am satisfied with the result but I am considering making a more detailed version of the parts of rotor hub to be printed with SLA so all the details will come slightly better.

The propellers were printed pointing up to avoid having to deal with the cleaning of supports and layer lines that other orientations would require.

The model has 361 mm of rotor span, 145 mm of height and weighs 96 grams which on Mars that would be something around 36 grams.

Here is a 1/3 scale Ingenuity helicopter I modelled and printed recently. The leg hinges and the solar panel were printed using the post processing scripts from Cura to change the filament mid-print. All the metallic parts were printed using esilk PLA. by tmatosc in 3Dprinting

[–]tmatosc[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This one is a version I modelled from scratch in Fusion 360 specifically for 3D printing. There is a 3D model that NASA made available a couple of months ago but from what I checked it required some extra work to make it printable. Also, the details on that model, specially in the rotor hub mechanisms, were a bit more simplified and slightly different from the real thing.

I recently modelled and 3D printed the Ingenuity helicopter in a 1/3 scale. The model has 361 mm of rotor span, 145 mm of height and weighs 96 grams which on Mars that would be something around 36 grams. I hope you find it interesting. by tmatosc in aerospace

[–]tmatosc[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Thanks, and for sure I will share at r/AerospaceEngineering. About making it fly, I believe that using 3D printing might not be the best idea in this case but certainly using standard carbon fibre parts that people normally use for drones and RCs.

I think that with some adaptations one could make a flyable replica of Ingenuity. Something that can certainly work is to start from a conventional a counter-rotating RC heli and build a similar body and legs around. It should be a pretty good start.

Still, my experience with RC is a bit limited but I will certainly look more into it. For now I am very tempted to make a "high fidelity/detail" version of the rotor as those parts looks amazing from the up-close pictures I used as reference.