Flying a drone on Mars will bring the planet closer to home. First, it's about getting off the ground, then bringing rocks back, and, eventually, people.
Earth's first-ever helicopter on Mars, Ingenuity, is a first step to humans on MarsImage: JPL-Caltech/NASA/abaca/picture alliance
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As with the first human moon landing in 1969, NASA's Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, is both a small step and a giant leap. Although perhaps that should read "short flight, giant journey" or some other revision of Neil Armstrong's famous words.
Either way — and do or die — Ingenuity is a first step towards astronauts traveling to Mars and eventually coming back to Earth.
First, it's about learning how to fly an object on Mars, where the atmosphere is thinner than Earth's own atmosphere. That's significant because a planet's atmosphere can affect how things take off from the ground and fly about, how they navigate their way, and how they land again. Safely.
We know almost everything there is to know about flying on Earth, but almost nothing about flying on Mars. Even just landing a probe, such as the American rover Perseverance, which traveled with Ingenuity strapped to its belly, was never a done deal… before it was done.
NASA's largest-ever Mars rover, Perseverance, takes a selfie on the Red PlanetImage: NASA/AFP
Launching from Mars?
It's never been done.
Once scientists have worked out how to fly short distances on Mars, they will have gained real, practical experience — beyond their mathematical assumptions and calculations.
That will help them build rockets and other spacecraft better suited for launching from Mars, returning samples and, perhaps at some point in the next hundred years, bringing people back to Earth.
And that has the potential to reshape all our lives — no matter where we live. The potential of going to a second planet and coming back will be about the only true "game-changer" humanity has seen since that cliché was coined.
Sample return missions from Mars
But all that starts with simpler things. NASA's helicopter plays neatly into a joint project that the American space agency is running with its European counterpart, ESA.
Their so-called "Mars Sample Return Campaign" aims to bring samples of Martian rock, soil and dust back to Earth.
Perseverance and Ingenuity, known collectively as the Mars 2020 Mission, are central to the campaign.
The plan is for Perseverance to stash samples of rock and soil in an area around Jezero Crater, where the rover landed in February. Those samples will then be collected, all things going to plan, by a subsequent mission at the end of this decade.
Sample retrieval and mobile launchpad
NASA and ESA have been studying options for what they are calling a Sample Retrieval Lander. That lander will include another rover, which will collect the samples, a mobile launchpad and a rocket-like capsule to bring the stuff back.
Using what scientists hope to learn about launching from Mars and test flying Ingenuity, the capsule — or "ascent vehicle" — will leave the planet in around 2028 and rendezvous with an orbiting spacecraft. That spacecraft will then grab the samples and take them on their onward journey home.
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What good is getting Martian dirt?
First, it's to see whether we can.
Nations around the world are working on returning all kinds of samples from space.
But there is a growing sense that nations feel they can demonstrate a greater competence in space by getting new samples from moons, asteroids and other planets, such as Mars.
For a start, it demonstrates technological ability. That's why China has been running sample return missions from the moon most recently. And Japan is also planning a mission to return samples from one of the Martian moons, Phobos, in about 2024.
Shot of Perseverance's landing-parachute at Jezero Crater, a popular site of scientific interest on MarsImage: NASA/AFP
Then it's about mining for resources. The moons, asteroids and other planets in our solar system are made from similar cosmic minerals and materials to those found on Earth. So, there's massive commercial intent.
And at some point, nations will want to defend their commercial interests in space, even if militarily. Hence, refer back to point one: Demonstrating technological ability.
Ultimately, however, it's about seeing whether we can learn about the geology and biology on Mars in ways that can't (yet) be achieved by remote labs, such as that on the Perseverance rover.
And, there again, it's about those ever-present questions, both scientific and philosophical: Is there life on Mars and can we use what's there to build a new life for humans on Mars?
Only, we're a sentimental species, aren't we? Even the hardiest of us will probably want to keep an option open of returning to Earth if things don't quite work out on the Red Planet. And that tiny drone they call a helicopter is a down-payment on that very human desire for a place we all call home.
NASA's rover Perseverance has landed on Mars
Perseverance is NASA's fifth Mars rover and its biggest and heaviest to date. Its mission on the Red Planet has started this Thursday.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A new rover for the red planet
NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance rover (shown in artist's illustration) is the most sophisticated rover NASA has ever sent to Mars. Ingenuity, a technology experiment, will be the first aircraft to attempt controlled flight on another planet. Perseverance touched down at Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18, 2021 at about 20:57 UTC with Ingenuity attached to its belly.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Everything prepared
NASA engineers loaded the Mars rover Perseverance onto an Atlas V rocket at the start of July 2020. The rocket took off on July 30 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rover arrived at the orbit around Mars in early February 2021.
Image: NASA
Presentation in a clean room
This is how Perseverance looked when it was presented to the public in 2019. The rover will support NASA's Curiosity rover, the most modern rover until Perseverance came along. The new rover weighs a little over a ton — 100 kg (220 pounds) more than its predecessor. And at 3 meters (10 ft) long, it's also 10 centimeters longer as well.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
More performance
Perseverance can be loaded with more research instruments and sensors than its predecessor. And its gripper arm, with its cameras and tools, is stronger, too. The rover can collect samples from Mars. It's got 23 cameras and many other instruments. One mission is to test whether it's possible to extract oxygen from Martian rock. But, hey, what's that standing next to the rover on the ground?
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
A small drone
That's right! Perseverance has a helicopter onboard. That's never happened on a planetary mission before. The helicopter is completely new territory for its developers. It will be the first time they're able to experience and collect data from flight in atmospheric conditions that are different from those on Earth, and in a gravity that is about a third of our own.
Image: NASA/Cory Huston
The robotic giant
Curiosity is the largest and most modern of all Mars rovers currently deployed. It landed on August 6, 2012, and has since traveled more than 21 kilometers (13 miles). It is much more than just a rover. Its official name is "Mars Science Laboratory," and it really is a complete lab on wheels.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Nasa/Jpl-Caltech/Msss
What's in it?
For example, it contains a special spectrometer, which can analyze chemical compounds from a distance with the help of a laser; a complete meteorological station that can measure temperature, atmospheric pressure, radiation, humidity and wind speed; and most importantly, a chemistry lab that can run detailed analyses of organic compounds and is always on the hunt for traces of alien life.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
Not just scratching the surface
Curiosity has shown that life would theoretically be possible on Mars. But it hasn't discovered any life, yet. The robot's arm is equipped with a full power drill. Here, it's taking a sample in "Yellowknife Bay" inside the Gale Crater.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Off to the lab!
The Mars dust is processed by a large number of instruments. First, it's filtered and separated into different-sized particles. Then, those get sorted and sent off to different analytical laboratory machines.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/NASA
A tiny predecessor
Curiosity's predecessors were much smaller. On July 4, 1997, the small Mars rover Sojourner left its first tire tracks behind in the dust of the red planet. It was the first time a mobile robot had been left to its own devices there, equipped with an X-ray spectrometer to conduct chemical analyses and with optical cameras.
Image: NASA/JPL
Size comparison
Three rover generations. (The tiny one up front is Sojourner.) At 10.6 kilograms (23 pounds), it's not much bigger than a toy car. Its top speed: 1 centimeter per second. Opportunity weighs 185 kilograms — roughly the equivalent of an electric wheelchair. Curiosity is as big as a small car, at 900 kilograms. The big ones travel up to 4 or 5 centimeters per second.
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Almost four months of duty
Sojourner travelled about 100 meters during its lifetime and delivered data and pictures until September 27, 1997. This is one of the last pictures of it, taken nine days before the radio connection broke down. Sojourner probably died because the battery did not survive the cold nights.
Image: NASA/JPL
Paving the way for tomorrow's technology
Without the experience of Sojourner, newer rovers could have hardly been envisaged. In 2004, NASA landed two robots of the same model on Mars: Spirit and Opportunity. Spirit survived for six years, travelling a distance of 7.7 kilometers. The robot climbed mountains, took soil samples and withstood winter and sandstorms. Its sibling, Opportunity, lost contact on February 13, 2019.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Lots of gadgets
Opportunity passed the marathon distance of 42 kilometers back in 2015, and to this day, it has covered much more ground than Curiosity. It can take ground probes with its arm. It has three different spectrometers and even a 3D camera. It was last operating in "Perseverance Valley," an appropriate workplace for the sturdy robot, before being incapacitated by a sandstorm.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The red planet's landscapes
This panorama was taken by Curiosity's mast camera. The most modern of the rovers will stay in service as long as possible — hopefully at least another five years. The Martian landscape looks familiar somehow, not unlike some deserts here on Earth. Should we give in to our wanderlust, then — or would it be better leave Mars to the robots?
