NASA has just announced that it's 2020 mission to Mars will involve taking along a small autonomous rotorcraft.
Jim Bridenstine, who is the NASA administrator, had this to say about the exciting new project:
“NASA has a proud history of firsts. The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling. The Mars Helicopter holds much promise for our future science, discovery, and exploration missions to Mars.”
This will be the first time an aircraft (as opposed to a spacecraft or rocket of some description) has flown across another planet. The appeal of this type of explorer over a rover is quite clear.
Unlike a rover, the Mars helicopter would be unhampered by unpredictable surfaces and impassable boulders. It can also travel faster and further in a short space of time meaning it can potentially gather more data. The Curiosity Rover, for instance, travels at only 200m per day. Of course, though, it could just fall over or crash as soon as it takes off. With space exploration, there are always numerous problems to overcome.
The 2020 mission sure has grand ambitions including sending the rover to multiple regions of interest to collect ground samples. These samples will be potentially collected by another mission to the red planet and blasted off to Earth via another rocket.
The helicopter project was first conceived in August 2013 by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Four years of development have resulted in a craft that weighs just under four pounds (1.8 kilograms). It has a square shaped fuselage just bigger than a soccer ball and twin, counter-rotating blades to chop through the thin Martian atmosphere at almost 3,000 rpm. This is around 10 times faster than a comparable helicopter aircraft here on earth!
Way back in 2015, NASA's JPL produced a video about the helicopter in its early stages of development which provides some extra information about the interesting technology along with some background on the mission.
With the Mars mission only a few years away, it'll be exciting to see this project develop all the way up to the first flight on the red planet. It will be a milestone not only for NASA but for aviation as a whole.
Find out more
NASA article about the helicopter
Article by James Whomsley
Editor of FliteTest.com
www.youtube.com/projectairaviation
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