Europe considers a helicopter drone for future Mars missions
The European Space Agency is considering flying a technology demonstration helicopter drone on a future Mars mission.
Note that they don’t yet have the money to build this, and it appears that they don’t yet have a mission to fly it on. What they have done is just completed a preliminary study, which suggests the idea is feasible. They are now lobbying for more cash to move forward.
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The European Space Agency is considering flying a technology demonstration helicopter drone on a future Mars mission.
Note that they don’t yet have the money to build this, and it appears that they don’t yet have a mission to fly it on. What they have done is just completed a preliminary study, which suggests the idea is feasible. They are now lobbying for more cash to move forward.
The support of my readers through the years has given 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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five 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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5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
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I wonder if they have considered a “lighter than air” craft? Hydrogen should be a good gas in the low oxygen martian air. A sort of hybrid? That way the craft wouldn’t be completely dependent on solar panels. It could have a tool that it drops, or a claw that could drop rocks (like a seagull) to find out whats inside without having to drill…
This is just monkies trying to look cool by imitating those who do the real thing. US Congress two weeks ago instructed NASA to add a Martian helicopter to the Mars 2020 rover, and increased the planetary science budget accordingly. Based on several years of successful development which is a real alternative. ESA hopes to simply skip that part and pretend to be in the same game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3y7iJEe7uM
@PeterF,
Mars’ atmosphere at low altitudes is only 0.6%-1% of that on Earth’s surface. So whatever a hydrogen balloon can lift on Earth, divide that by at least 100. This is why landing on Mars is hard, parachutes only work at very high speeds. And hydrogen gas quickly escapes through thin lightweight balloon cloth. The plan now is to wait a day, or several, to Solar charge a battery in order to spend all that energy on a short vigorous propeller hop. Such a “helihopter” can take a bird’s view image of the rover’s surroundings to guide it and also study the ground where it lands. Landing, or even steering, a lighter-than-air vehicle seems harder.
I thought a U2 type long wing glider might be an idea for Barsoom.