LONDON: NASA’s Mars Rover travels at a rate of 660 feet per day or 27.5 feet per hour. It is slowed further by obstacles and by caution. When navigating the rover, NASA engineers only have the rovers on board cameras and satellite photography to navigate by.
Those steering the rover must exercise extreme caution because if it gets stuck in loose soil, flips over or slips into a ditch there is no help to send. A piece of multi-million dollar piece of equipment and years of work could be lost.
Beyond risk to the craft itself, NASA researchers could pass within feet of something truly remarkable and not see it.
Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena California believe that they have come up with an inexpensive way to provide an extra set of eyes or two to the next Mars rover.
The proposed Mars Helicopter is a small, solar powered drone that would be attached to the rover but could take off to get a short range aerial view of the rovers surroundings. The drone would fly ahead of the rover each day, investigating the route, possible alternate routes and points of interest. The researchers believe that the drone could triple the distance the rover travelled each day.
In addition to improving the rovers speed and helping to avoid pitfalls and accidents, the helicopter would help with site selection. The rover could gather detail on points of interest, investigate possible sample collection sites, and provide NASA with additional details about the Martian terrain.
