Next-generation drone flight software is just one of 25 technologies for the Red Planet that the space agency funded for development this year.<\/p>\n
When NASA engineers want to test a concept for exploring the Red Planet, they have to find ways to create Mars-like conditions here on Earth. Then they test, tinker, and repeat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why a team from NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California took three research drones to California\u2019s Death Valley National Park and the Mojave Desert earlier this year. They needed barren, featureless desert dunes to hone navigation software. Called\u00a0Extended Robust Aerial Autonomy<\/a>, the work is just one of 25 projects funded by the agency\u2019s Mars Exploration Program this past year to push the limits of future technologies. Similar dunes on Mars\u00a0confused the navigation algorithm<\/a>\u00a0of NASA\u2019s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter during several of its last flights, including its 72nd and\u00a0final flight<\/a>\u00a0on the Red Planet.<\/p>\n \u201cIngenuity was designed to fly over well-textured terrain, estimating its motion by looking at visual features on the ground. But eventually it had to cross over blander areas where this became hard,\u201d said Roland Brockers, a JPL researcher and drone pilot. \u201cWe want future vehicles to be more versatile and not have to worry about flying over challenging areas like these sand dunes.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s new navigation software, slope-scaling robotic scouts, or long-distance gliders, the technology being developed by the Mars Exploration Program envisions a future where robots can explore all on their own \u2014 or even help astronauts do their work.<\/p>\n NASA scientists and engineers have been going to Death Valley National Park since the 1970s, when the agency was preparing for the first Mars landings with the twin\u00a0Viking<\/a>\u00a0spacecraft. Rubbly volcanic boulders on barren slopes earned one area the name Mars Hill, where much of this research has taken place. Almost half a century later, JPL engineers tested the\u00a0Perseverance<\/a>\u00a0rover\u2019s\u00a0precision landing system<\/a>\u00a0by flying a component of it in a piloted helicopter over the park.\u00a0<\/p>\n For the drone testing, engineers traveled to the park\u2019s Mars Hill and Mesquite Flats Sand Dunes in late April and early September. The JPL team received only the third-ever license to fly research drones in Death Valley. Temperatures reached as high as 113 degrees Fahrenheit (45 degrees Celsius); gathered beneath a pop-up canopy, team members tracked the progress of their drones on a laptop.\u00a0<\/p>\n The test campaign has already resulted in useful findings, including how different camera filters help the drones track the ground and how new algorithms can guide them to safely land in cluttered terrain like Mars Hill\u2019s.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s incredibly exciting to see scientists using Death Valley as a proving ground for space exploration,\u201d said Death Valley National Park Superintendent Mike Reynolds. \u201cIt\u2019s a powerful reminder that the park is protected not just for its scenic beauty or recreational opportunities, but as a living laboratory that actively helps us understand desert environments and worlds beyond our own.\u201d<\/p>\n For additional testing during the three-day excursion, the team ventured to the Mojave Desert\u2019s Dumont Dunes. The site of\u00a0mobility system tests<\/a>\u00a0for NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover in 2012, the rippled dunes there offered a variation of the featureless terrain used to test the flight software in Death Valley.<\/p>\n \u201cField tests give you a much more comprehensive perspective than solely looking at computer models and limited satellite images,\u201d said JPL\u2019s Nathan Williams, a geologist on the team who previously helped operate Ingenuity. \u201cScientifically interesting features aren\u2019t always located in the most benign places, so we want to be prepared to explore even more challenging terrains than Ingenuity did.\u201d<\/p>\n The California desert isn\u2019t the only field site where Mars technology has been tested this year. In August, researchers from NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston ventured to New Mexico\u2019s White Sands National Park, another desert location that has hosted NASA testing for decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n They were there with a doglike robot called\u00a0LASSIE-M<\/a>\u00a0(Legged Autonomous Surface Science In Analogue Environments for Mars). Motors in the robot\u2019s legs measure physical properties of the surface that, when combined with other data, lets LASSIE-M shift gait as it encounters terrain that is softer, looser, or crustier \u2014 variations often indicative of scientifically interesting changes.\u00a0<\/p>\n The team\u2019s goal is to develop a robot that can scale rocky or sandy terrain \u2014 both of which can be hazardous to a rover \u2014 as it scouts ahead of humans and robots alike, using instruments to seek out new science.<\/p>\n Another Mars Exploration Program\u00a0concept funded this past year is an autonomous robot that trades the\u00a0compactness of the Ingenuity helicopter for the range that comes with wings. NASA\u2019s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, has been developing the\u00a0Mars Electric Reusable Flyer<\/a>\u00a0(MERF), which looks like a single wing with twin propellers that allow it to lift off vertically and hover in the air. (A fuselage and tail would be too heavy for this design.)\u00a0While the flyer skims the sky at high speeds, instruments on its belly can map the surface.<\/p>\n At its full size, the MERF unfolds to be about as long as a small school bus. Langley engineers have been testing a half-scale prototype, sending it soaring across a field on the Virgina campus to study the design\u2019s aerodynamics and the robot\u2019s lightweight materials, which are critical to flying in Mars\u2019 thin atmosphere.<\/p>\n With other projects focused on new forms of power generation, drills and sampling equipment, and cutting-edge autonomous software, there are many new ways for NASA to explore Mars in the future.<\/p>\n News Media Contacts<\/p>\n Andrew Good Alise Fisher \/ Alana Johnson 2025-131<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next-generation drone flight software is just one of 25 technologies for the Red Planet that the space agency…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,2758,6361,141,145,98607],"class_list":{"0":"post-164839","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-mars","11":"tag-robotics","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-technology-research"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-393-2433
andrew.c.good@jpl.nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-617-4977 \/ 202-672-4780
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0alana.r.johnson@nasa.gov<\/a><\/p>\n