NASA is planning to add a helicopter to its next Mars Rover, which is slated to launch in July 2020. The solar-powered Mars Helicopter will be able to fly autonomously around the Red Planet.
Members of the NASA Mars Helicopter team attach a thermal film to the exterior of the flight modelof the Mars Helicopter inside the Space Simulator vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.. But this time, there’s going to be helicopter on it. That’s right, a helicopter. If it succeeds, it’ll be the first aircraft to fly around on another planet.
The Mars Helicopter payload includes solar cells to charge its lithium-ion batteries, a heating mechanism to keep it warm, a high-resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, and a communication system to relay data back to the 2020 Mars rover. This new helicopter is a high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration. If everything goes smoothly, more helicopters could be used in the future to investigate difficult-to-reach destinations such as cliffs, caves and deep craters.
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