Another Mars location being considered for future helicopter mission
Click for original picture.
In today’s May download of new photos from Mars Reconnaissnce Orbiter (MRO) I came across the picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, and taken on April 2, 2024 by MRO’s high resolution camera. The scientists labeled it “Sample Rim Traverse Hazards at Possible Mars Helicopter Landing Site.” It was clearly taken as part of preliminary research to determine some potential landing sites for a future Mars helicopter mission.
Nor is this the first such location or region on Mars targeted for such a mission. As shown in the global map above of Mars, colored by the elevation data from MRO (blue is low and orange is high), two other candidate sites are being looked at as well. About a half dozen pictures have been taken inside the eastern end of Valles Marineris, exploring a helicopter mission there. In addition, MRO took for the same purpose a recent photo of the floor of Terby Crater, on the northern interior slope of Hellas Basin.
Today’s picture, indicated by the inset on the global map above, is of the very mountainous floor of 35-mile-wide Degana Crater, located about 200 miles southeast of Valles Marineris. This terrain is obviously too difficult for a rover. Though there are clearly many technical issues that need to be solved to fly an automous helicopter across such terrain, a helicopter seems the most practical method for exploring this kind of landscape.
Degana is intriguing to scientists because its interior shows evidence of glacial and liquid water features on top of a volcanic dome. From this paper [pdf]:
Thus, this region is one of the locations on Mars, which recorded diagnostic evidences for volcanic, fluvial as well as glacial activities over the same location. The exposure of pristine mid-Noachian crust [about 4 billion years ago] and non-coeval fluvial and glacial activities suggests that this region witnessed wide geologic and climatic transitions on Mars.
Expect more such pictures at other locations in the coming few years, followed up by several workshops where the scientists will hash out the options, followed eventually by a proposed actual mission. We already know that a six-rotor helicopter concept has been proposed, the first of many such concepts to come. Other scientists have proposed sending a sailplane to Mars, with Valles Marineris its likely target.
While the need for an Air Traffic Control system is very far in the future, the skies of Mars are going to soon hum with flying objects.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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Click for original picture.
In today’s May download of new photos from Mars Reconnaissnce Orbiter (MRO) I came across the picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, and taken on April 2, 2024 by MRO’s high resolution camera. The scientists labeled it “Sample Rim Traverse Hazards at Possible Mars Helicopter Landing Site.” It was clearly taken as part of preliminary research to determine some potential landing sites for a future Mars helicopter mission.
Nor is this the first such location or region on Mars targeted for such a mission. As shown in the global map above of Mars, colored by the elevation data from MRO (blue is low and orange is high), two other candidate sites are being looked at as well. About a half dozen pictures have been taken inside the eastern end of Valles Marineris, exploring a helicopter mission there. In addition, MRO took for the same purpose a recent photo of the floor of Terby Crater, on the northern interior slope of Hellas Basin.
Today’s picture, indicated by the inset on the global map above, is of the very mountainous floor of 35-mile-wide Degana Crater, located about 200 miles southeast of Valles Marineris. This terrain is obviously too difficult for a rover. Though there are clearly many technical issues that need to be solved to fly an automous helicopter across such terrain, a helicopter seems the most practical method for exploring this kind of landscape.
Degana is intriguing to scientists because its interior shows evidence of glacial and liquid water features on top of a volcanic dome. From this paper [pdf]:
Thus, this region is one of the locations on Mars, which recorded diagnostic evidences for volcanic, fluvial as well as glacial activities over the same location. The exposure of pristine mid-Noachian crust [about 4 billion years ago] and non-coeval fluvial and glacial activities suggests that this region witnessed wide geologic and climatic transitions on Mars.
Expect more such pictures at other locations in the coming few years, followed up by several workshops where the scientists will hash out the options, followed eventually by a proposed actual mission. We already know that a six-rotor helicopter concept has been proposed, the first of many such concepts to come. Other scientists have proposed sending a sailplane to Mars, with Valles Marineris its likely target.
While the need for an Air Traffic Control system is very far in the future, the skies of Mars are going to soon hum with flying objects.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
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