The chopper aims to be the first aircraft to take flight on another planet.
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| © Provided by CBS Interactive Inc. The Mars Helicopter. NASA |
How well can a vehicle fly in the Mars atmosphere? NASA just got a step closer to finding out, announcing Wednesday
that its Mars Helicopter has been attached to the Mars Rover it intends
to send to the Red Planet next year. The 2020 Mars Rover should arrive
on the planet in February 2021, and if all goes to plan, the helicopter
will then become the first aircraft to fly on a planet other than Earth.
The Mars Helicopter will serve a double duty. NASA will use it to see
how the conditions on mars affect aviation, and to prove that we can
fly helicopters, drones and other aircraft on Mars. Once in the air, the camera-equipped copter will then showcase the viability of surveying Mars by sky.
"Our
job is to prove that autonomous, controlled flight can be executed in
the extremely thin Martian atmosphere," said MiMi Aung, manager of the
Mars Helicopter project. "If we prove powered flight on Mars can work,
we look forward to the day when Mars helicopters can play an important
role in future explorations of the Red Planet."
The thin Martial
atmosphere Aung mentions means the Mars Helicopter has to be both
lightweight and powerful. It'll use solar cells to charge its batteries,
and operate a built-in heater to combat frigid nighttime temperatures.
The chopper will be autonomous: The nearest humans will be light years
away, so any kind of manual control isn't yet an option.
NASA first announced its plan to attach a chopper to its 2020 Mars Rover last year, but it's been developing the technology since 2013.
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