NASA's helicopter destined to fly to the planet Mars has completed another round of major tests and is expected to integrate with the rover in taxidi for Mars, which will take place in the summer of 2020.
Building a heavier-than-air craft to fly to the planet Mars is quite a difficult undertaking because the air on Mars is much thinner than on planet Earth and the thermowinees are too low.
Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is conducting various tests throughout 2019 on a specially built helicopter, in order to integrate with the rover that will go to Mars. They have built "a simulated Aryan environment" and test the helicopter at temperatures as low as minus 90 degrees Celsius, as well as in conditions that simulate both the density of Martian air and its quality (CO2 is the main component). In the video below you will also see it attached to a string that helps simulate the gravity of Mars.
Some of the tests were to ensure that the helicopter could survive the conditions it would encounter during a realof launching the rocket that will carry it.
The helicopter passed the flight test and now he is "wearing" his new solar panel. NASA says it is not putting any scientific instruments on the helicopter, other than a camera machine, but its purpose is to prove that it is possible to fly a guided drone from Earth. Somewhere around here, those of you who own a drone must be feeling a little weird about the word “range”.
The 2020 mission to Mars is scheduled to begin in July 2020 and arrive on Mars on February 18, 2021. You can not go together, but you can submit your name to Nasa to engrave it on a silicon chip to be mounted on the rover.
The main destination for the mission is the Jezero crater, where NASA hopes the rover will find signs of ancient life.
