NASA has released a rendering of its Mars Chopper, which officials say is a “more capable proposed follow-on” to the agency’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which arrived at the Red Planet in the belly of the Perseverance rover in February 2021.
According to NASA officials, Chopper will be about the size of an SUV, with six rotors, each with six blades. It could be used to carry science payloads as large as 11 pounds distances of up to 1.9 miles each Martian day (or sol).
NASA officials say scientists could use Chopper to study large swaths of terrain in detail, quickly — including areas where rovers cannot safely travel.
NASA officials add that the Chopper remains in early conceptual and design stages.
The proposed design is the product of collaboration between NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the agency’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley, and AeroVironment.
For more information: Science.NASA.gov
That is quite a big helicopter this time, almost as large as the eVTOL taxis that they are developing for earth use. The article does not mention the challenges of flying in the Martian atmosphere they have to design for. The air is so thin it is about like flying at 100K feet here on earth and the temperatures are brutally cold which is not good for batteries. It would have been useful if they mentioned when it should get to Mars and what it might be traveling with. That first one was tiny, just an add on to a large rover for proof of concept but this one would need to take up a lot more space on any lander. Just leaves me with a lot of questions but nice to hear about it.