Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working on a helicopter drone that could scout a trail for future Mars exploration vehicles.
NASA’s Curiosity Rover. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Malin Space Science Systems.
Previous Mars rover, such as Opportunity and Spirit, have delivered a wealth of information about the history and composition of the planet, but a rover’s vision is limited by the view of onboard cameras, and images from spacecraft on the orbit of the Red Planet are the only other clues to where to drive it.
To have a better sense of where to go and what’s worth studying on Mars, it could be useful to have a low-flying scout.
A proposed add-on to future rovers, named the Mars Helicopter, could potentially triple the distance the rovers currently drive in a Martian day and deliver a new level of visual information for choosing which sites to explore.
The drone is envisioned to weigh about 1 kg and measure 1.1 meters across from the tip of one blade to the other. The prototype body looks like a medium-size cubic tissue box.
It would fly ahead of the rover almost every day, checking out various possible points of interest and helping researchers plan the best driving route.
“If our rover was equipped with its very own helicopter that could see over tall objects in front of it, it would allow us to make decisions much more efficiently on which way to command the rover,” said Mike Meacham of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
“You might think it’s actually easier to fly one of these helicopters on Mars because it’s actually 3/8th the gravity we have here on Earth, but it’s a hundred times less atmosphere.”
“The way any of these helicopters work is the rotor blades spin up and they produce lift because of the density of the atmosphere. So once you lose that density, you’ve got to spin even faster or get bigger rotor blades or get lighter.”
Bob Balaram of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory explained: “over the course of the last year we have done a number of tests in our 7.6-m vacuum chamber using scale models where we pump down to Mars densities, demonstrating lift of these kinds of blades. They have to spin at about 2,400 rpm to provide lift.”
“The system is designed to fly for 2-3 minutes every day. There’s a solar panel on the top and that provides us with enough energy for that short flight, as well as to keep us warm through the night. So in those 2-3 minutes, we expect to have daily flights of about half a kilometer or so.”
He added: “because this thing is going to take off every day and land every day, we want to make sure we have a bulletproof landing system, and landing is the riskiest part of any mission.”
The researchers could also use the helicopter images to look for features for the rover to study in further detail.
Another part of the helicopter’s job would be to check out the best places for the rover to collect key samples and rocks for a cache, which a next-generation rover could pick up later.
