NASA is sending more helicopters to Mars

The first works fine. NASA is now sending two more. It’s about two new helicopters that the Americans are now sending to Mars.

NASA is now moving forward with sending two new helicopters to Mars. The two are similar to the game Ingenuity, which followed NASA’s Perserverance Rover to Mars.

However, the two new ones should have the additional ability to be able to grab and transport small tubes filled with chunks of rock from Mars, like underground drones. The New York Times.

This project is part of NASA’s upcoming large mission around Mars, to bring Martian rocks to Earth in cooperation with the European Space Agency for examination by scientists using modern laboratory equipment that cannot fit in a spacecraft.

“I found a way forward”

“We’ve found a way forward using advanced innovative design,” said NASA’s deputy director of science. Thomas Zurbuchen At a press conference on Wednesday where they talked about the updated mission called “The Return of the Mars Sample.”

Perseverance drilled rock samples into a crater called Jezero and the original plan was to send a craft built by the European Space Agency to pick up the samples and return them to the probe.

There it will then be loaded onto a rocket and launched into Mars orbit. Then another spacecraft takes the container with the rocks to Earth.

Successful tests

Helicopters were originally a backup option, but the tests gave such successful results that NASA decided to invest in the solution now offered.

“We made our decision based on new studies and recent achievements on Mars that allowed us to consider options that, frankly, were not available to us a year ago or before,” explains Thomas Zurbuchen.

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