NASA Aims To Boost Mars Rovers Mission By Using Helicopter Scouts

Mars rovers such as Opportunity and Curiosity have delivered a considerable amount of information about the history and composition of the red planet. Although, the rovers have several advantages over immobile landers, they have limited vision of the surrounding landscapes. The observations made by these automated motor vehicles highly depend on the onboard cameras, and the images from spacecraft orbiting the planet. Moreover, rovers also have to travel through the uneven Martian surface.


To overcome these challenges, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California is working on Mars Helicopter drone that will act as a low-flying scout for rovers. The data captured by the helicopter (designed to fly ahead of a rover about 2-3 minutes almost every day) will help the engineers from the Earth to plan the best driving route for a rover. According to JPL, this proposed add-on to Mars rovers could triple the distance currently travelled by them in a Martian day. It will also provide enhanced visual information about the various possible sites that can be explored. In addition to the list, the helicopter will find out the places for the rover so that it can gather essential samples and rocks for a cache. A next-generation rover could pick up the cache afterwards.

The prototype of Mars Helicopter resembles a medium-size cubic tissue box and is envisioned to weigh about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram). It will measure 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) from the tip of one blade to the other and its blades will have to spin around 2400 rpm to provide the lift. After the testing phase is complete, the drone should be ready for Mars.

For more details, you can have a look at the below video. Let us know your views in the comments section below.


Source: #-Link-Snipped-# via NASA is testing an autonomous Martian helicopter - The Verge