Engineers from NASA are finalizing the design of a small helicopter that is estimated to be sent to Mars during the Mars 2020 mission. The apparatus will have to Fly in the thin atmosphere of the red planet, survive extremely cold nights and operate alone because it will be millions of miles from the nearest pilot, who will guide it from Earth. However, engineers believe they have devised a design that can deal with these and other challenges.
Credits: NASA/JPL-CalTech
“Flying a heavier-than-air vehicle within Mars’ thin atmosphere has never been done before, and we’re excited our aeronautics experts could help with this important space mission,” said Susan Gorton, in a public NASA statement. She is NASA’s supervisor for the Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) project.
Due to the properties of the Martian atmosphere, the pressure on its surface is equivalent to that existing at about 33,000 meters above the surface of the Earth. This distance has never been reached by any helicopter or half of that distance on our planet for that matter.
- In this sense, the experts from NASA affirm that this apparatus will be able to reach 15 feet above the Red Planet thanks to its two rotary blades, which can turn at a speed of 2,400 rotations per minute, 10 times faster than a normal helicopter.
- Another useful feature is the small size of the aircraft, which, according to NASA, will be like a softball and weigh just under two kilos (4.4 Lbs).
- On the other hand, a solar panel on the top of the vehicle will recharge the batteries, which will serve both to turn the blades and to make sure the vehicle does not cool down at night.
In total, five flights of up to 90 seconds are planned. Beyond the main objective – to fly a helicopter on Mars – the device will carry a small camera to take images of the surface and transmit them to Earth.
