Helicopters to fly on Mars

NASA has announced that it will be sending a helicopter to Mars as part of its next rover mission in 2020. This will be the first aircraft to fly on another planet.

The helicopter, named Mars Helicopter, is currently being developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California. It is designed to fly in the Martian atmosphere, which is much thinner than Earth’s, with only about 1% of the density of Earth’s atmosphere.

How it works

The Mars Helicopter is a small, lightweight aircraft, weighing only 1.8 kilograms, with a fuselage about the size of a softball. It will be attached to the belly of the rover during the launch and landing, and will be deployed after the rover lands on Mars.

The helicopter will be powered by solar cells and will be controlled remotely by engineers on Earth. It has two counter-rotating blades that will spin at about 3,000 revolutions per minute, which is about ten times faster than a helicopter on Earth. This is necessary to generate enough lift to overcome the thin Martian atmosphere.

The mission

The Mars Helicopter will serve as a technology demonstration for NASA, to show that it is possible to fly an aircraft on another planet. If successful, it could lead to more advanced aerial vehicles on future missions, which could be used to explore difficult-to-reach areas, such as cliffs and caves.

The helicopter will also provide valuable data about the Martian atmosphere, which could be used to inform future missions and potentially even human settlements on the planet.

Conclusion

The Mars Helicopter is an exciting and innovative project that could pave the way for new forms of exploration and research on Mars. It is scheduled to launch in 2020 as part of NASA’s next rover mission and is already generating a lot of interest and enthusiasm among space enthusiasts and scientists alike.