Mars might soon see a swarm of robot bees buzzing across its red landscape, gathering crucial data. The concept, known as “Marsbees,” offers a new solution to the challenges posed by the Red Planet’s unique environment.

Inspiration from nature

NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC) aims to use Marsbees to explore Mars more efficiently. These tiny robots draw inspiration from nature, mimicking the long-range flight capabilities of animals like Monarch butterflies (longest flight recorded at 4,000 km) and wandering albatrosses (capable of 12,000-km flights). These skilled fliers are known for their energy-efficient wing movements and adaptability to different atmospheric conditions.

Flying on Mars is difficult because of the environment. The air density is just 1% that of Earth’s. So, that means that there’s almost no air to push off of to try and fly. And that also means that your vehicle therefore needs to do a couple of special things. First off, it needs to be very, very light.

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter weighs just 1.8 kilos or four pounds. To make up for the lack of lift, its rotor spins 2,800 revolutions per minute compared to a helicopter on Earth that would just be spinning at a few hundred revolutions per minute.

And then of course, because Mars is so far away you can’t control a flying robot with a joystick. It’s about a 15-minute round-trip delay to send a message to the craft. This is why Ingenuity was designed for full autonomy with all the capability on board to navigate, and to deal with a gust of wind, or just about any unplanned circumstances all on its own.

Overcoming Mars’ harsh conditions for flight

The Marsbees, approximately the size of a bumblebee but with wings similar to a cicada, are supposed to overcome the same challenges as Ingenuity — it’s just that the approach is different and their numbers will be much greater. Each Marsbee is equipped with a stereo color camera and a suite of sensors, including navigation, LIDAR, inclinometers, inertial measurement units, and a communication module. These instruments collect and transmit data back to a rover, which acts as their base of operations, which is linked up with Earth.

A typical fixed-wing aircraft on Mars can’t travel for more than 16 minutes without having to recharge with current technology. However, Marsbees can save power by passively deforming and rotating the wings, resulting in a long flight time.

The planned mission is to use the Marsbees as a “multi-agent system” meant to survey their surroundings and construct a 3D topographic map. In other scenarios, each part of the swarm of Marsbees could carry pressure and temperature sensors for atmospheric sampling, or small spectral analyzers for identification of mineral outcroppings.