NASA To Test First Helicopter On Another World; Will Travel On JPL's Mars 2020 Rover
MAY 11, 2018 @ 09:11 PM
Bruce Dorminey , CONTRIBUTO
When Leonardo da Vinci first dreamed up the helicopter, he likely never imagined that a fully-realized version of his early concept would one day be knocking around Mars. But NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) just confirmed that it’s sending a fully-autonomous miniature test helicopter attached to the belly-pan of its Mars 2020 Rover.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's Mars Helicopter, a small, autonomous rotorcraft, will travel with the agency's Mars 2020
Due for launch in July 2020, the Mars copter is primarily a technology demonstration. But if successful, it will mean that the U.S. will be the first country to fly such heavier-than-air craft on another world.
Arguably the biggest challenge for any heavier-than-air vehicle on Mars is simply the fact that Mars has an atmosphere that has recently been revised downward to only one percent that of Earth . Thus, the principles of flight that work so well here present a herculean challenge on the Red planet.
“To make it fly at that low atmospheric density, we had to scrutinize everything, make it as light as possible while being as strong and as powerful as it can possibly be,” Mimi Aung, Mars helicopter project manager at JPL, said in a statement.
Weighing in at just under four pounds, with a fuselage about the size of a softball, NASA says, the helicopter’s twin, counter-rotating blades will cut through what’s left of Mars’ Martian atmosphere at some 3,000 rpm. That’s about 10 times the rate of a helicopter on Earth.
More:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucedorminey/2018/05/11/nasa-to-test-first-helicopter-on-another-world-will-travel-on-jpls-mars-2020-rover/#3acd9aae70ee
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