Drone Test Flights Are Being Tested for Flights on Alien Worlds

We’ve already seen the success of the Ingenuity probe on Mars. The first aircraft to fly on another world set off on its maiden voyage in April 2021 and has now completed 72 flights. Now a team of engineers are taking the idea one step further and investigating ways that drones can be released from satellites in orbit and explore the atmosphere without having to land. The results are positive and suggest this could be a cost effective way to explore alien atmospheres. 

The idea of using drones on alien worlds has been enticing engineers and planetary explorers for a few years now. They’re lightweight and versatile and an excellent cost effective way to study the atmosphere of the planets. Orbiters and rovers have been visiting the planets for decades now but drones can explore in ways rovers and orbiters cannot. Not only will they be useful to study atmospheric effects but they will be able to reach inaccessible surface areas providing imagery to inform potential future land based study. 

Perhaps one of the most famous, indeed the only successful planetary drone to date is the Ingenuity drone which was part of the Perseverance rover mission. It was able to demonstrate that controlled flight in the Martian atmosphere was possible, could hunt out possible landing sites for future missions and direct ground based exploration. It’s iconic large wingspan was needed due to the rarefied atmosphere on Mars requiring larger rotor blades to generate the required lift. Ingenuity was originally planned as a technology demonstration mission but it soon became a useful tool in the Perseverance mission arsenal. 

NASA engineers are very aware of the benefits of drone technology and so a team of engineers and researchers from the Armstrong Flight Research Center in California have been taking the idea of small drones one step further. The research was part of the Center Innovation Fund award from 2023 and began as the team developed three atmospheric probe models. The models were all the same, measuring 71 cm from top to bottom, one for visual demonstration, the other two for research and technology readiness. 

Their first launch on 1 August didn’t go to plan with a failure in the release mechanism. The team reviewed everything from the lifting aircraft, the release mechanism and even the probe design itself to identify improvements. The team were finally able to conduct flights with their new atmospheric probe after it was released from a quad rotor remotely piloted aircraft on 22 October 2024. 

The flights were conducted above the Rogers Dry Lake near in California with designs informed by previous NASA instrumentation designed for lifting and transportation. The test flights were aiming to prove the shape of the probe worked. The team now want to release the probe from a higher altitude, ultimately hoping to be able to release it from a satellite in orbit around a planet. 

The next steps are to review photos and videos from the flight to identify further improvements before another probe is built. Once they have probed the flight technology, instrumentation will be added to facilitate data gathering and recording. If all goes to plan then the team hope to be chosen for a mission to one of the planets, be released in orbit and then dive into the atmosphere under controlled flight to learn more about the environment. 

Source : Atmospheric Probe Shows Promise in Test Flight