A helicopter that is set to fly on Mars in 2021 has completed its first test flight, NASA has revealed.
The 4lb (1.8kg) device will be carried in the belly of the of the Mars 2020 rover but will fly into the skies above the red planet for the first time.
The space agency hope that the drone-like helicopter will give scientists new insight into what the Martian surface is like from above.
It took two brief test flights in a Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, which they said were the first and last time the craft will take flight until it reaches Mars.
Scientists describe flying the device remotely from hundreds of millions of miles away as an incredibly difficult technical feat.
Mars has a third less gravity and 99 per cent less air than Earth so the team suggest that it’s like flying it at 100,000 feet, even though initially it will only go 9 feet (3 metres) in the air.
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Exploration on other planets has long been restricted to rovers on the ground, but engineers are making progress in their ambitious plans to launch a drone-like device into the skies above the Red Planet for the first time
This graphic shows how the Mars Helicopter will operate on its mission in 2021. Graphic by John Lawson
The lab, in Pasadena, replicated as closely as possible Mars’s thin atmosphere and freezing temperatures, which reach as low as -90°C (-130°F) at night.
The vacuum chamber swaps nitrogen, oxygen and other gases for carbon dioxide to mimic the atmosphere of the Red Planet, as well as a gravity offload system.
They accomplished this with a a motorised lanyard attached to the top of the helicopter to provide an uninterrupted tug equivalent to two-thirds of Earth’s gravity.
‘Getting our helicopter into an extremely thin atmosphere is only part of the challenge,’ said Teddy Tzanetos, test conductor for the Mars Helicopter.
‘To truly simulate flying on Mars we have to take away two-thirds of Earth’s gravity, because Mars’s gravity is that much weaker.’
The craft will operate mostly autonomously, since the half-hour round trip for commands would be far too long for an Earth-based pilot to operate it.
It operates on solar cells and batteries and has small landing feet, and will perform flights of increasing distance from the rover over a 30-day period.
According to NASA, it will go about three meters in the air initially and then hopefully get hundreds of meters away from its partner.
Previously, exploration on other planets has long been restricted to rovers on the surface.
A few months after the Mars 2020 rover has landed in February 2021, the helicopter will detach and do test flights of up to 90 seconds.
NASA is aiming to launch the helicopter with the Mars 2020 rover in July 2020, before it is expected to reach the planet in February 2021 and carry out flights a few months later
The lab, in Pasadena, replicated as closely as possible Mars’s thin atmosphere and freezing temperatures, which reach as low as minus 90C (minus 130F) at night. The vacuum chamber swaps nitrogen, oxygen and other gases for carbon dioxide to mimic the atmosphere of the Red Planet, as well as a gravity offload system
The space agency has been putting the 4lb (1.8kg) helicopter through its paces in a vacuum chamber at its Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, which swaps nitrogen, oxygen and other gases for carbon dioxide to mimic the atmosphere of the Red Planet
‘The next time we fly, we fly on Mars,’ said MiMi Aung, project manager for the Mars Helicopter.
‘Watching our helicopter go through its paces in the chamber, I couldn’t help but think about the historic vehicles that have been in there in the past.
‘The chamber hosted missions from the Ranger Moon probes to the Voyagers to Cassini, and every Mars rover ever flown.
‘To see our helicopter in there reminded me we are on our way to making a little chunk of space history as well.’
Mars has a third less gravity and 99 per cent less air than Earth so the team suggest that it’s like flying it at 100,000 feet, even though initially it will only go 3 metres in the air. Here, one of the now defunct Opportunity rover’s views of Mars
The news comes days after US Vice President Mike Pence told NASA that he wants astronauts on the Moon again within five years.
NASA is accelerating plans to return to the lunar surface by 2028 for the first time since 1972 and claim that they will be there ‘to stay’.
The aerospace agency’s head Jim Bridenstine said they plan to make the moon sustainable for humans so they can go back and forth regularly.
President Trump said in 2017 that he wants to return Americans to the moon and establish a foundation there for an eventual mission to Mars.
As a way-station for trips to and from Earth, NASA want to build a space station, dubbed Gateway, in the moon’s orbit by 2026.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT NASA’S MARS 2020 ROVER?
Nasa’s Mars 2020 rover will search for signs of ancient life on Mars in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet.
The machine will explore an ancient river delta within the Jezero Crater, which was once filled with a 1,600-foot (500-meter) deep lake.
It is believed that the region hosted microbial life some 3.5 to 3.9 billion years ago.
Nasa’s Mars 2020 rover (artist’s impression) will search for signs of ancient life on Mars in a bid to help scientists better understand how life evolved on our own planet
The $2.5 billion (£1.95 billion) Mars 2020 is planned to launch in July 2020, and land in February 2021.
Mars 2020 is designed to land inside the crater and collect samples that will eventually be returned to Earth for further analysis.
Nasa says a second mission will need to fly to the planet and return the samples, perhaps by the later 2020s.
This concept art shows the Mars 2020 rover landing on the red planet via NASA’s ‘sky-crane’ system
