NASA will send a helicopter to Mars... The space agency has revealed that it will send a small autonomous rotorcraft to the Red Planet as part of the Mars 2020 mission, which is scheduled to start in July 2020. Engineers want to test the ability of a vehicle heavier than air to move in a Mars atmosphere.
NASA is proud of its achievements as the first space agency. The idea of a helicopter flying in another planet's atmosphere is amazing. Mars Helicopter is a great opportunity for the future of Mars' science, discoveries and research missions," says NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine.
It is a good idea for the United States to become the first country capable of placing a heavier vehicle than air in the atmosphere of another planet. This is an exciting vision that will inspire young people in the US to become scientists and engineers, laying the foundations for further, even greater, achievements in the future, says influential congressman John Culberson.
The Mars Helicopter project started in August 2013. After four years of operation, a vehicle weighing 1.8 kilograms was built, whose opposing rotors will operate at a speed of almost 3,000 revolutions per minute. This is almost 10 times faster than helicopter rotors on Earth. After the Wright brothers had proved 117 years ago that it was possible to sustain a controlled and driven flight in the atmosphere of the Earth, another group of American pioneers could prove that the same was possible on another planet," said Thomas Zurbuchen, responsible for the Science Mission Directorate.
The helicopter is equipped with solar batteries to provide it with energy and a heating system to keep it at the right temperature during Martian nights.
The record altitude of a helicopter's flight on Earth is around 12 kilometres. The Mars atmosphere is 100 times less dense than the Earth's atmosphere, so the helicopter on the surface of the Red Planet will have the same conditions as 30 kilometres above the Earth's surface. To make him fly in these conditions, we had to take every factor into account, making the helicopter as light as possible and at the same time as robust and powerful as possible," says Mimi Aung, Mars Helicopter's project manager.
Once the Mars 2020 rover is on the Mars surface, it will go to the right location to leave the helicopter. Then they moved away from the helicopter for a safe distance. After the battery has been charged and a series of tests have been carried out, the auditors will order the Earth to blow up Mars Helicopter. We do not have a remote control there, and the Earth will be at a distance of several minutes of light, so there is no possibility to control the helicopter in real time. The vehicle is autonomous, it will receive and interpret commands from the Earth and on their basis it will perform its mission on its own, explains Aung.
The helicopter will take 30 days to test. During this time, the vehicle will have up to five flights and the distance will be extended with each of them. The longest flight is expected to last up to 90 seconds, during which time Mars Helicopter will travel several hundred meters. On his first flight to Mars, the helicopter will rise to a height of 3 metres and hover for about 30 seconds.
Mars Helicoper's mission is considered a high-risk mission, but one with great potential benefits. Even if it fails, it will not affect Mars 2020 as a whole, and if it does, it will be of great importance to future Martian missions. The ability to see what is behind the nearest hill is crucial for future expeditions. We can already see Mars from orbit and from its surface. If you add to this the view from the helicopter, you can only imagine what the next missions will achieve, Zurbuchen is happy.
The 2020 mission is to be launched in Mars in February 2021. The chain will carry out geological surveys of the landing sites, determine the possibilities of living on Mars, search for traces of old life, search for natural resources and estimate the risks associated with the manned exploitation of the Red Planet. The collected samples will be closed in tight tubes and left on the Mars surface. There, they will wait for them to be taken on and sent to Earth as part of their future missions.
