Universe Today
Ingenuity proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that a helicopter can operate on another planet. Over 72 flights, the little quadcopter that could captivated the imagination of space exploration fans everywhere. But, several factors limited it, and researchers at NASA think they can do better. Two papers presented at the recent Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, held March 10-14 in The Woodlands, Texas, and led by Pascal Lee of NASA Ames and Derric Loya of the SETI Institute and Colorado Mesa University, describe a use case for that still-under-development helicopter, which they call Nighthawk.
There are plenty of interesting places to explore on Mars, but one has stood out to fans of Mars exploration. Dr. Lee is undoubtedly one of those fans, as one of his roles is as the Founder of the Mars Institute, a non-profit dedicated to research on the Red Planet. The place that stands out is called Noctis Labyrinthus—the Labyrinth of the Night.
Noctis Labyrinthus is interesting for a variety of reasons, but one of the most important is its geographic location. It's sandwiched between Valles Marineris to the East and Tharsis, the giant shield volcano, to the west. One particular site, known as Noctis Landing, in the east of the region, has regularly been proposed as a potential human landing site for future crewed missions.
Fraser discusses using resources on Mars - which Noctis Labyrinthus might have a lot of.
However, the terrain of Noctis Labyrinthus is challenging, to say the least. It contains dune fields, ancient lava flows, giant boulders, and even deeper canyons. In other words, it's not somewhere a rover would be very effective at traversing.
But a helicopter would be. Landing safely in the area might be tricky, but a helicopter could soar above the fray, landing only when it found a safe spot and taking dramatic aerial pictures while doing so.
So why not just use Ingenuity or a similar class of helicopter? That is the focal point of one of the papers, and the answer is three specific reasons:
Ingenuity relies on a rover (Perseverance) to relay communications back to Earth - and rovers aren't particularly useful in Noctis Labyrinthus
Ingenuity could only reach a height of about 25 m off the ground, which is too small of a height differential to circumvent some obstacles in the region—the authors estimated 100m above the ground as a minimum.
Ingenuity wouldn't have enough thrust to fly in the less dense Martian atmosphere in the region, at least for most of the year. And it definitely wouldn't have enough to carry a 3kg payload, as the authors would want for their science mission.
Fraser discusses the life and legacy of Ingenuity - Mar's first helicopter.
That's where the NASA Mars Chopper comes in. It is being designed as a stand-alone, SUV-sized drone capable of carrying a science payload of up to 5kg up to 3km per day. That aligns much more closely with the team's science goals for Nighthawk. They expect a 3kg payload consisting of a color camera, a near-infrared one, and a neutron counter that also serves as a water detection instrument.
Nighthawk is expected to complete around a 300 km journey throughout its primary science mission. It will look for evidence of potential water deposits and study the evolution of this part of the Red Planet. A "light tone deposit," or LTD, is of particular interest near the Relict Glacier, which could hold much water closer to the equator than the known deposits near the poles.
There are already many missions that hope to utilize the Mars Chopper, though Nighthawk stands out as a very well-thought-out plan, and it already has the backing of one of NASA's premiere Mars scientists. Currently, there is no set date for the competition of the new Mars Chopper. Still, as it continues its development, mission planners will undoubtedly start looking at architectures like Nighthawk to determine where the newly designed massive drone will go first.
Learn More:
D Loya & P Lee - NIGHTHAWK: RATIONALE FOR A MARS CHOPPER CLASS ROTORCRAFT TO EXPLORE NOCTIS LABYRINTHUS
P Lee et al - NIGHTHAWK: A MARS CHOPPER MISSION TO EXPLORE NOCTIS LABYRINTHUS’ GIANT VOLCANO, CANYONS, RELICT GLACIER, H2O EVOLUTION, AND POTENTIAL FOR LIFE & HUMAN EXPLORATION
UT - Mars Was Hiding Another Giant Volcano
UT - This is What it Would Be Like to Fly Across Mars