For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency\u2019s near-term focus at the red planet is on aerial drones, a pioneering mode of exploration that didn\u2019t seem realistic until a few years ago.<\/p>\n
The first real use of drones for science at Mars will come with the SkyFall mission, a fleet of three helicopters set for launch as soon as late 2028. SkyFall\u2019s helicopters will ride to the red planet with NASA\u2019s Space Reactor-1 \u201cFreedom\u201d mission<\/a>, which has the primary objective of demonstrating nuclear electric propulsion in deep space.<\/p>\n The launch schedule is aggressive for SR-1 Freedom and SkyFall, projects that didn\u2019t even exist in NASA\u2019s portfolio six months ago. NASA\u2019s plan for the SR-1 Freedom mission, estimated to cost $2.1 billion, calls for repurposing the core module of the canceled Gateway lunar space station into a testbed for nuclear electric propulsion. SkyFall will build on NASA\u2019s success with the Ingenuity helicopter, an experimental vehicle that became the first rotorcraft to fly on another world<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is partnering with AeroVironment, a developer of high-altitude drones, to design and build the three SkyFall helicopters, plus one spare. The same team was behind the Ingenuity helicopter that landed on Mars with NASA\u2019s Perseverance rover five years ago.<\/p>\n Development underway<\/p>\n AeroVironment announced last week that it received a contract from JPL to \u201cco-design and co-manufacture\u201d the three SkyFall helicopters. Ingenuity flew 72 times before a crash landing in early 2024, far exceeding the mission\u2019s original plan of five test flights. Engineers are building on the Ingenuity design for the SkyFall helicopters. The new vehicles will be somewhat larger than Ingenuity\u2014about 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) instead of 1.8 kilograms (4 pounds)\u2014with upgraded rotors to handle a heavier payload.<\/p>\n SkyFall will show that \u201cMars helicopters can be built as a repeatable product line, not a one\u2011off delivery,\u201d said Jeff Rodrian, head of AeroVironment\u2019s MacCready Works division, the company\u2019s advanced research and development organization.<\/p>\n AeroVironment is responsible for the helicopters\u2019 rotor systems, airframes, structures, avionics integration, and accommodation for science payloads, the company said in a press release. JPL will develop the power system, electronics, algorithms, and software, along with a ground-penetrating radar to search for shallow subsurface ice below the Martian surface. Each helicopter will also carry a suite of cameras and sensors to gather data on the Martian atmosphere.<\/p>\n This is an upgrade over Ingenuity, which carried two cameras but lacked any sophisticated scientific instruments. Ingenuity\u2019s range was limited by a requirement to communicate through a base station on the Perseverance rover, while SkyFall will be capable of transmitting and receiving data through communications relay orbiters flying overhead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-586905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}