ORLANDO, Fla., March 22 (UPI) – NASA’s plan to fly a helicopter on Mars for the first time in a few weeks could usher in a new era of intergalactic exploration as the space agency’s small rover Sojourner did in the 1990s, according to several experts.
A Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, will be released from the Perseverance rover soon, but NASA has not confirmed the exact date. The rover put out a shield that covered the helicopter over the weekend.
Ingenuity is just as good a display as Sojourner was, but it provides images of the surface around the Perseverance rover.
Depending on its success, NASA may be able to use helicopters to study Mars faster, said Robert Zubrin, founder and president of the nonprofit Mars Association, which is calling for a study Martian.
“Rovers are great, yeah, but they’re slow,” Zubrin told UPI. “A rover could go 600 feet in a day, but a helicopter could fly 600 feet in a few minutes, and maybe more than 100 miles in a day at some point.”
Zubrin said he believes Ingenuity is one of the most interesting elements of the Perseverance rover, which landed on Mars on February 18. The rover and helicopter made the 300-million-mile journey after they landed. launched from Florida in July.
Zubrin said he and the 5,000 members of the association are very much looking forward to seeing Ingenuity fly by. The small helicopter weighs 4 pounds, but has dual solar power rotors 4 feet in diameter to be lifted in the thin Martian air.
“We would use helicopters as drones for reconnaissance for future human explorers,” he said. “We could even use a combination of helicopters and robots to help establish human habitats on Mars before humans arrive.
“Ultimately, it’s possible that astronauts could travel around Mars in helicopters – but they would have to be much bigger and more powerful.”
Mars has a surface area that is equivalent to Earth’s continents, so more efficient methods of studying it are important, said Ray Arvidson, professor of Earth and Planning Sciences at the University of Washington in St. Louis. Louis. He has been involved in all missions to Mars since the Viking invasion of Mars in 1976.
“If the helicopter test is successful, it will open up new avenues for exploring the planet, with very detailed predictions from an air platform adding rovers to the ground,” Arvidson said.
I have been busy since I landed on Mars. Hear from members of my team about what I’ve been researching off my to-do list recently and what they’re planning for me and the #MarsHelicoper, Ingenuity, in the days to come. Leave your Qs for them in the comments. pic.twitter.com/6MRsYjq0Ae– Marsever Perseverance NASA (@NASAPersevere) March 19, 2021
Such aerial views allow for a more effective identification of “Mars’ rich and complex geological history,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether Ingenuity will provide images of the land that could lead Sustainability through Jezero Crater, where it landed, said Kirsten Siebach, associate professor of planetary geology at Rice University in Houston.
Such assistance for the rover is not a target for the helicopter, but it could happen, she said.
Even on Earth, geologists often use flying drones to find difficult terrain such as canyons, cliffs or volcanoes, she said.
“If you can’t see a rock or see it on the horizon, you can fly a drone there to help you figure out if it’s worth going there,” Seibach said. “Future rovers can be packed with drones to aid navigation.”
She noted that Perseverance’s main goal is to find rocks that will bear witness to life in Mars’ past. The rover drills rock samples that NASA plans to retrieve and send back to Earth on future missions.
Siebach hopes to study these samples one day.
“Success with Ingenuity would simply open up the opportunities for the next generation of spacecraft to deliver a new angle to Mars that we have never seen before,” she said.
Demonstrations from Mars: Perseverance rover sends images
NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover found this image of its “ejectable belly pan” lying on the surface of Mars on March 14, using its left-handed navigation camera (Navcam). Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
Perseverance found this image of his “ejectable belly pan” lying on the surface of Mars using his SHERLOC WATSON camera, which is located on the turret at the end of the rover’s artificial arm. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
The main goal of the Perseverance mission on Mars is astrobiology, involving the discovery of signs of microbial old life. In collaboration with the European Space Agency, NASA’s subsequent missions would send a spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and bring them back to Earth for in-depth analysis. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
Perseverance received this image on March 6, of the area in front of it using the camera on the front board of a real danger A. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
Perseverance took this image on March 4 of a rocky hill in Jezero Crater, which NASA scientists said appears to be a remnant of an ancient river delta. Image courtesy of NASA
Perseverance got this image of the area behind him by using his camera on the left rear danger board. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
The permanence of this image was achieved by using his onboard camera on the left on March 3rd. The camera is located above the rover’s mast and supports driving. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
The rover can be seen in this enhanced HiRISE color image at the landing site six days after the February 24 flight. Photo courtesy of NASA | License photo
A permanency rover captured this image using his left-handed Mastcam-Z camera. The Mastcam-Z is a pair of cameras mounted high on the rover’s mast. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
Perseverance records the Martian surface. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
The Martian surface is intricately documented from Perseverance. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
The navigation cameras aboard the Mars rover captured this view of the rover’s deck on Monday. This view takes a look at PIXL (the Planning Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), one of the instruments on the stove arm of the rover. Image courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech
This panorama, made by the navigation cameras aboard Perseverance, was sewn together from six separate images after being sent back to Earth. Subsequent missions, currently being considered by NASA in collaboration with the European Space Agency, would send spacecraft to Mars to collect and preserve these preserved samples from the surface. back to Earth for in-depth analysis. Image courtesy of NASA / JPL-Caltech
This is the first high-resolution color image returned by the Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) on the lower side of NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover after it landed on Feb. 18. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
This high-resolution image, from the camera aboard the descent platform, is part of a video taken with multiple cameras while NASA’s Perseverance rover crashed down on Mars. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
Perseverance can be seen falling through the Martian atmosphere at descent, his parachute sliding behind him, in this image taken Thursday by the High-resolution Image Test camera aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The old river delta, a target of a permanence mission, can be seen entering Jezero Crater from the left. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
A photo shows the rover driving in the foreground over the Jezero Crater range, where the robotic explorer landed safely. Image courtesy of NASA
An image showing where a Perseverance Mars rover landed can be seen during an update following NASA’s Perseverance rover mission, on Feb. 18, at NASA’s Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Photo by Bill Ingalls / NASA License photo
Members of NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover team watch in mission control as the first images arrive moments after the spacecraft courted down on Mars. Photo by Bill Ingalls / NASA License photo
The first photos taken by NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover after they landed on Martian surfaces. The main goal of the Perseverance mission on Mars is astrobiology, involving the discovery of signs of microbial old life. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
These computer symbols show Sustainability landing on the Martian surface. The rover marks the geology of the planet and the climate of the past, paving the way for human exploration of the Red Planet and being the first mission to gather Martian rock and regolith and to accumulate. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
In this image of his descent to Mars, the spacecraft carrying NASA’s Perseverance rover slows down using the attraction generated by its maneuver in Martian atmosphere. Hundreds of emergency incidents have to be executed in time for the rover to reach Mars safely. Entry, descent, and landing, or “EDL,” begins when the spacecraft reaches the top of the Martian atmosphere, traveling nearly 12,500 mph. The platform splits about 10 minutes before entering the atmosphere, leaving the aeroshell, which surrounds the level of the rover and the descent, to make the trip to the surface. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
Picture of Sustainability on Mars, launched from Earth in July. It is the fifth rover to successfully reach Mars, and the first of three that could return rock samples to Earth. Image courtesy of NASA | License photo
