NASA provides for a new Martian mission: helicopters responsible for exploring the Red planet and identifying the sites most likely to welcome future inhabited missions.
For the past year and a half, there has not been an active helicopter on the surface of Mars. After 72 flights in three years, the little ingenuity, who arrived on the red planet with the Rover Perseverance finished his mission definitively, a broken pale and with a success that no one or almost dared to imagine.
NAS NASA is now preparing for a new mission concept: Skyfall. The principle is simple: six drones sent to Mars to explore the premises and determine what would be the best spots for a future inhabited mission.
Martian paratroopers dropped in the atmosphere
The originality of this mission is based in the arrival scheduled for Mars. Instead of having a rover as for IngenuityIngenuityand therefore of an landing platform, which is always risky, these helicopters would be directly deployed in theatmosphereatmosphere Like a group of paratroopers.
An orbit probe would drop a capsule intended to enter the atmosphere of Mars. At a reasonable altitude, it would open to release the helicopters, which would be less risky and above all cheaper.
Presentation of Skyfall: Concept of potential mission for new generation Martian helicopters and the exploration of March. © AV
At that time, the mission could really start with each device responsible for exploring the planet independently. They could provide high images resolutionresolutionradar data to better understand the Martian basement and its composition. Ideally, they would also be able to discover what are the areas that have water, ice or any other type of resource.
The images of the surface will identify the best landing sites and the future routes that will be borrowed from rolling vehicles.
Prepare for the arrival of human explorers
The project is being constructionconstruction With the Jet Propulsion Laboratory NASA, but also Virginia’s company, Aerovironment, specializing in drone construction. Regulars of this kind of exercise that had already worked with NASA to design the Pathfinder plane in the 1990s, with solar panels on the wings.
Its director of the space department, William Pomerantz, said in a press release: ” With six helicopters, Skyfall will provide an inexpensive solution that multiplies the land that we can cover, the data that we can harvest, and the scientific research that you can conduct. This will make the first step of humanity on Mars significantly closer. »
The mission could even be launched in the near future. The date of a departure by 2028 is even announced, an optimal date for a mission to Mars due to the position of the planets, but which is still to be taken with tweezers. In any case, despite the extremely innovative aspect of the mission, the technical challenge is not so insurmountable.
Ingenuity has already paved the ground and has shown that having a helicopter flying on Mars was possible, with better performance than that the prognosisprognosis The most optimistic. However, there was the fear of not being able to stay in theairair Due to the very low density of the Martian atmosphere, which requires much faster blades than on earth. An obstacle ultimately crossed with the success we know.