NASA is planning for the first time to use a small helicopter to survey Mars as part of the agency’s 2020 mission to put a new rover on the red planet’s surface.
The space agency announced Friday that the solar-powered helicopter, which weighs about four pounds, would deploy from a car-sized rover to fly through the thin Martian atmosphere, according to Reuters.
Pilots on Earth will control the next-generation aircraft for small test flights at first, and then gradually expand the range and duration as they determine its potential to scout and study previously inaccessible locations.
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“The idea of a helicopter flying the skies of another planet is thrilling,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement.
NASA said the blades of the small helicopter, which has a softball-sized fuselage, would maintain an RPM of nearly 3,000, about 10 times that of helicopters on Earth.
The mission is planned for a launch in July 2020 and is scheduled to arrive on the planet in February 2021 to study the potential for Mars to be inhabited.