The first helicopter flight takes place on Mars!
Category : Technology
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.