The first helicopter flight takes place on Mars!
When Perseverance, the latest Mars rover of NASA, comes to the scene this week, the robot will have another small leak passenger on board: a small helicopter in the form of a box.
If the helicopter successfully manages to float above the land of Mars, a man-made vehicle will be flying for the first time on another planet - and we can say that a new way to explore the Solar System has opened in the future.
This interplanetary experiment hopes to provide a new perspective beyond the limited options available to explore Mars. Mars trajectories cannot take high-resolution images where a spacecraft can get close to the ground. While landings can only receive information from a fixed location, travelers can only move forward and contain limited information about what is ahead. However, a helicopter can act as a scout by scouting for other spacecraft or reaching hard-to-reach areas.
This exploration ability can be super helpful if people reach the surface of Mars. "It will be much better to get high-resolution images to fly forward and then inform travelers for the people," says MiMi Aung, Mars helicopter project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.