Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Space

NASA wants to use a helicopter to explore Mars

It's time to take to the skies -- on Mars.

Jordan Strickler by Jordan Strickler
July 3, 2019
in Space, Space flight

Not content to purely rove on Mars, NASA is also taking to the air. The Mars 2020 Rover (which is scheduled to land on the Red Planet in early 2021) will include a helicopter — the first heavier-than-air vehicle to fly in the thin Martian atmosphere.

Animation of Mars helicopter and Mars 2020 rover. Image credits: NASA / JPL / CalTech

The helicopter will be deployed from the rover. The rover then will be driven away from the helicopter to a safe distance from which it will relay commands. After its batteries are charged and a myriad of tests are performed, the helicopter will begin the first autonomous flight on an extraterrestrial body in history.

“The Mars Helicopter’s initial flight will represent that planet’s version of the Wright Brothers’ achievement at Kitty Hawk and the opening of a new era,” said Susan Gorton, NASA’s manager for the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project. “For those of us whose research revolves around all things related to flight, that would be a remarkable, historic moment.”

The body of the helicopter will be about as big as a softball. It will weigh just under four pounds (1.8 kilograms) and have two sets of rotor blades — each measuring four-feet long — spinning at 2,400 RPMs. That’s about 10 times faster than any helicopter you might find on Earth. A solar array on the top of the vehicle will recharge the batteries, which will be used to both rotate the blades and keep it warm during Mars’ cold nights (Insight recorded a balmy high of 4 degrees Fahrenheit [-15 Celsius] on March 24).

ADVERTISEMENT

The helicopter will only fly some 15 feet above the Martian surface, but don’t dismiss that distance. The intended landing point for the 2020 Rover is the equivalent to 100,000 feet (30,000 meters) above the surface of our home planet, which is almost 19 miles up. No helicopter has reached even half that height here.

Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

NASA plans to attempt up to five flights, from 330 feet to 3,300 feet (100 to 1,000 meters) away from the lander, each lasting 90 seconds. While it won’t have any scientific instruments on it, the helicopter will have a small high-resolution color imager.

“We envision helicopters opening doors to new types of exploration on Mars,” said Håvard Grip, flight-control and aerodynamics lead for the Mars Helicopter. “In the future, we could imagine doing things like (engaging in) regional exploration using multiple helicopters or going to inaccessible areas or biologically sensitive areas using small helicopters.”

This isn’t NASA’s only rotor-flight machine in the works. A mission aptly-named Dragonfly will hope to introduce a quadcopter lander to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, in 2020.

ADVERTISEMENT

Jordan Strickler

Jordan Strickler

A space nerd and self-described grammar freak (all his Twitter posts are complete sentences), he loves learning about the unknown and figures that if he isn’t smart enough to send satellites to space, he can at least write about it. Twitter: @JordanS1981

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.