NASA has announced plans to
send a small helicopter to Mars on their 2020 mission, which also aims to place
a rover from the latest generation on the planet. If successful, it would be
the first time humanity has deployed a helicopter on another planet. This seems like a very good plan.
NASA's Mars chopper will be
controlled remotely, making it not just a helicopter but also a drone or UAV
(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). "We don't have a pilot and Earth will be
several light-minutes away, so there is no way to joystick this mission in real
time," said Mimi Aung, the project manager of NASA's Mars Helicopter at
the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in a statement. "Instead, we have
an autonomous capability that will be able to receive and interpret commands
from the ground, and then fly the mission on its own."
The helicopter has two
blades that rotate counter to one another and weighs just 4 pounds (1.81 kg).
Its main body section, or fuselage, is no bigger than a softball, according to
NASA.
Because the atmosphere on
Mars is 100 times thinner than Earth's, the blades will spin at 3,000
revolutions per minute, which is about 10 times faster than the speed of
helicopter blades on Earth.
"To make it fly at that
low atmospheric density, we had to scrutinize everything, make it as light as
possible while being as strong and as powerful as it can possibly be,"
Aung said.
It isn't even certain that
vehicles can levitate on Mars, but the NASA helicopter seeks to
"demonstrate the viability and potential of heavier-than-air vehicles on
the Red Planet," according to a Friday statement. "The altitude record
for a helicopter flying here on Earth is about 40,000 feet (12,200 meters). The
atmosphere of Mars is only 1 percent that of Earth, so when our helicopter is
on the Martian surface, it's already at the Earth equivalent of 100,000 feet
(30,480 meters) up," Aung said.
The Mars Helicopter has been
in development since August 2013 and contains solar cells to charge its
lithium-ion batteries along with a heating mechanism, as temperatures during
the Martian night regularly reach —67 F (-55 C), and can go even lower.
The helicopter will be
deployed from the belly pan of the Mars 2020 rover and is considered critical
to future space exploration missions. "The ability to see clearly what
lies beyond the next hill is crucial for future explorers," according to
Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission
Directorate.
"If it does not work,
the Mars 2020 mission will not be impacted. If it does work, helicopters may
have a real future as low-flying scouts and aerial vehicles to access locations
not reachable by ground travel," NASA said in its statement.
The helicopter's first
flight will see it climb 10 feet (3 meters) into the Martian air, where it will
attempt to hover for 30 seconds. Four more flights, each faster than the
previous, will also be conducted over a 30-day period. Eventually, scientists
hope the helicopter can remain in the air for 90 seconds at a time.
NASA's Mars 2020 will launch
from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in July 2020 and is
expected to reach the Red Planet by February 2021.
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