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<p class=""wp-caption-text" role="presentation">Members of the NASA Mars Helicopter team attach a thermal film to the exterior of the flight model of the Mars Helicopter inside the Space Simulator vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.</p>"
<small class=""article-photo-credit">Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech</small>"
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<p>NASA is planning to launch its next <a href=""https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/">Mars Rover in July 2020</a>. But this time, there’s going to be helicopter on it. That’s right, a helicopter. If it succeeds, it’ll be the first aircraft to fly around on another planet.</p>"
<p>The solar-powered Mars Helicopter is only 31 inches tall, with twin-rotor blades that are 47 inches in diameter and a chassis that’s about the size of a softball. It weighs less than four pounds. But because of the thin Martian atmosphere, its blades rotate at almost 3,000 rpm, which is about 10 times the rate of a helicopter on Earth.</p>
<p>The Mars Helicopter payload includes solar cells to charge its lithium-ion batteries, a heating mechanism to keep it warm, a high-resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, and a communication system to relay data back to the 2020 Mars rover.</p>
<p>Since signals from Earth take as long as 24 minutes to reach Mars, the Mars Helicopter must be autonomous, it must be able to fly on its own.</p>
<p>This new helicopter is a high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration. If everything goes smoothly, more helicopters could be used in the future to investigate difficult-to-reach destinations such as cliffs, caves and deep craters.</p>
<p>Look for the Mars 2020 Rover, with the Mars Helicopter attached, to launch at the end of July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It's expected to land at Jezero Crater on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.</p>" readability="46.348795180723">
Members of the NASA Mars Helicopter team attach a thermal film to the exterior of the flight model of the Mars Helicopter inside the Space Simulator vacuum chamber at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA is planning to launch its next Mars Rover in July 2020. But this time, there’s going to be helicopter on it. That’s right, a helicopter. If it succeeds, it’ll be the first aircraft to fly around on another planet.
The solar-powered Mars Helicopter is only 31 inches tall, with twin-rotor blades that are 47 inches in diameter and a chassis that’s about the size of a softball. It weighs less than four pounds. But because of the thin Martian atmosphere, its blades rotate at almost 3,000 rpm, which is about 10 times the rate of a helicopter on Earth.
The Mars Helicopter payload includes solar cells to charge its lithium-ion batteries, a heating mechanism to keep it warm, a high-resolution downward-looking camera for navigation, and a communication system to relay data back to the 2020 Mars rover.
Since signals from Earth take as long as 24 minutes to reach Mars, the Mars Helicopter must be autonomous, it must be able to fly on its own.
This new helicopter is a high-risk, high-reward technology demonstration. If everything goes smoothly, more helicopters could be used in the future to investigate difficult-to-reach destinations such as cliffs, caves and deep craters.
Look for the Mars 2020 Rover, with the Mars Helicopter attached, to launch at the end of July 2020 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. It's expected to land at Jezero Crater on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021.
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