NASA is sending a tiny helicopter to Mars

In an effort to explore Mars more, NASA is sending out a tiny autonomous helicopter to fly over the planet within its atmosphere to give a birds-eye view of it.

NASA has announced its plans to launch a tiny, four-pound, autonomous helicopter named the ‘Mars Helicopter’ on its 2020 rover mission. The small drone will mark itself as the first airborne vehicle to fly around within Mars’ atmosphere, the other vehicles are the ground-based rovers.

As explained by Futurism, the helicopter has been in works since the last four years and the task of designing it was not an easy one. One of the challenges was the weak atmosphere of Mars and also the communication delay between ground control on Earth and the rover. For any commands sent from Earth will take several minutes to reach the helicopter.

NASA set to launch its InSight mission to Mars in few hours

Also, the atmosphere at the Red Planet is nearly non-existent. The air pressure at the Martian surface is 100 times lower than it is at a helicopter’s maximum altitude when flying above Earth. For taking off, the helicopter would need to spin its two blades 10 times faster, that is 3,000 times per minute, than it would on Earth while carrying batteries and other hardware designed to be as light as possible.

The rover will arrive at Mars in February 2021. After its arrival, it will carry out scouting missions to search for ideal landing zones on the planet’s surface along with scanning for signs of life, and the risks that might matter to the future astronauts that will finally land of Mars. The tiny flying drone will also help with the ongoing geology research that is at present underway by ground-based rovers.

Video Courtesy: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

“NASA has a proud history of firsts. The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling. The Mars Helicopter holds much promise for our future science, discovery, and exploration missions to Mars,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine.

If the Mars Helicopter flies successfully, its two cameras will help it to capture a rare aerial view of our neighboring Red Planet. It can also open possibilities to send future flying vehicles to Mars to explore locations that are hard to access, reported The Verge.