The basic design of a Mars helicopter is backed up by the dozens of flights NASA's Ingenuity has made.
. The campaign includes two Mars Sample Recovery Helicopters that will retrieve pre-filled sample tubes and deliver them to a rocket-in-waiting that will then vault those specimens into Mars orbit. Håvard Fjær Grip is chief engineer of autonomy and aerial flight at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the lab behind the revolutionary Ingenuity Mars craft.
"Nothing that we do is easy. And this is not easy either. It's hard but we think it is doable, with effort," Grip told Space.com in a post-AAS interview."The primary challenge here is mass. We have very little air to work with on Mars. That immediately limits the amount of mass that we can carry." As for the uncertain new elements, each of the Mars Sample Return helicopters would be outfitted with wheels and a small robot arm."Everything is conceptual," said Grip, adding that the decision to fly this mission is not finalized.
"I don't think it ever becomes risk free. So there's always a bit of nervousness waiting for data to come down. But it does become more routine," Grip said, the more often the vehicle flies. However, there's always the mindset of hoping all works as planned, he said.
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