Almost a year after Ingenuity broke the blade and ended its trial on Mars, NASA unveiled a new design concept that will replace the Martian helicopter and is comparatively the big boy.
NASA’s Mars Chopper, as it’s called, is about the size of an SUV, equipped with six rotors, each rotor holding six blades (I’ve already done the math for you, that’s 36 blades). The space agency recently revealed the launch of a helicopter, which is in its early stages of concept and design, according to NASA. Chopper project manager Teddy Tzanetos also presented the concept during a panel at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in Washington on December 11.
Wisdom was the first helicopter to fly on another planet, paving the way for more capable choppers to follow in its footsteps. Its low-cost design and robustness help NASA design future concepts to explore other planets in a completely new way.
NASA also shared an interesting 30-second animation showing the rotorcraft flying over the Martian surface during a possible future mission. The Mars Chopper could transport scientific payloads weighing 11 kilograms over a distance of 3 kilometers per Martian day. “Scientists can use Chopper to study large areas of the Earth in detail, quickly – including areas where rovers cannot safely travel,” explains NASA.
Intelligence leaves so Chopper can run. The OG Martian helicopter landed on the Red Planet in February 2021, tucked inside the belly of the Perseverance rover. Shortly thereafter, a 19-inch (48-centimeter), 4-kilogram (1.8-kilogram) helicopter became the first powered aircraft to take off from the surface of another planet. Although originally intended to make only five test flights, Wisdom kept going, making 72 flights, and flying 14 times farther than planned with a total flight time of two hours.
Things went downhill for Ingenuity earlier this year after the helicopter broke its gear during its 72nd landing, officially ending its mission in January. NASA recently concluded that the flight’s navigational errors caused the “high horizontal velocity at impact.”
Intelligence served its purpose of providing NASA with information that would help it develop a similar spacecraft to explore Mars, and other planets, from above. During its exploration mission, Ingenuity also assisted the Perseverance rover in exploring the Red Planet, hovering above the Martian rover and guiding its way across the dusty surface of Mars. Even after it crashed, Ingenuity still delivered weather and aviation data to Perseverance every week.
The future Mars Chopper has big shoes to fill, Intelligence has left a legendary legacy on the Red Planet.
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