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India’s next mission to Mars could include a helicopter that follows in the footsteps of NASA’s pioneering Ingenuity drone.
He Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is currently working on the concept, which would fly alongside an Indian Mars lander sometime in the early 2030s.
India’s first mission to the Red Planet: the Mars orbiter mission (MOM), also nicknamed “Mangalyaan”, was launched in November 2013 and entered orbit around Mars in September 2014. The spacecraft conducted science in orbit around the Red Planet for eight years prior. Contact with Earth was lost. in 2022.
Related: Mars: everything you need to know about the Red Planet
However, ISRO’s follow-up mission to Mars will be more ambitious. Jayadev Pradeep, a scientist at the Space Physics Laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, said during a recent webinar that a helicopter planned for a Mars landing mission will carry a set of payloads for aerial exploration of the planet, India Today. reported.
Planned scientific payloads for the drone include a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a pressure sensor, a wind speed sensor, an electric field sensor, and a trace species and dust sensor to measure vertical distribution from dust aerosols, according to the report.
The aerial vehicle will be able to fly up to 328 feet (100 meters) above the surface of Mars to profile the martian atmosphere. For comparison, Ingenuity reached altitudes of up to 79 feet (24 m) during its more than two hours of total flight and covered 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) of horizontal distance.
Ingenuity landed together with NASA Perseverance rover in Mars’ Jezero Crater in February 2021. Not only did it prove that flight was possible in the thin Martian atmosphere, it far exceeded all expectations. Ingenuity’s primary mission called for five technology demonstration flights, but the 4-pound (1.8 kilogram) helicopter fell short. 72 exits to Mars before being permanently grounded due to damage to the rotor blades in January 2024.
India is not the only nation taking inspiration from NASA and Ingenuity. China has at least a couple of concepts for drones on Mars, including one that could play a role in the country’s planned project. Mars sample return mission.