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NASA's March helicopter, the first vehicle in history to attempt to establish the viability of heavier-than-air vehicles flying on another planet, has successfully passed tests keys, announced the US space agency.
"Nobody had yet built a Mars helicopter, so we are continually entering new territories," said MiMi Aung, project leader for the Mars helicopter at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to the states. -United.
"Our flight model – the actual vehicle going to Mars – has recently passed several important tests," said Aung.
In January of this year, the team used the flight model in a simulated Martian environment.
Then, the helicopter was transferred to the Lockheed Martin space in Denver for compatibility testing with the Mars helicopter delivery system, which will hold the 1.8-kilogram spacecraft against the belly of Mars rover 2020 during the launch and the interplanetary cruise before deploying it on the surface of Mars. after landing.
As a technology demonstrator, the Mars helicopter carries no scientific instrument, NASA said in a statement.
Its purpose is to confirm that a flight propelled into the tenuous Martian atmosphere (which has 1% of the density of the Earth) is possible and that it can be controlled from Earth over great distances interplanetary.
However, the helicopter is also equipped with a camera capable of providing high resolution color images to further demonstrate the vehicle's potential for documenting the red planet.
Future Mars missions could engage second-generation helicopters to add an aerial dimension to their explorations.
They could investigate hitherto unknown or hard-to-reach destinations, such as cliffs, caves and deep craters, act as scouts for human crews or carry small payloads from one place to another.
The Mars helicopter and its delivery system were checked to ensure that the electrical connections and mechanisms that connected the vehicle with its cradle were properly adjusted.
The duo was subjected to the vibrations they will feel during launch and in flight operations.
The thermal vacuum portion of the tests exposed them to the types of extreme temperatures (up to -129 degrees Celsius) they would encounter in space and on Mars that could cause malfunctions or component failures.
The Mars helicopter returned to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory on May 11 for further testing.
A new solar panel for powering the helicopter has been installed and the rotor blades of the vehicle have been rotated to ensure the continued operation of more than 1,500 individual pieces of carbon fiber, aircraft grade aluminum , silicon, copper, leaf and airgel. as a cohesive unit.
The Mars helicopter will be launched with the March 2020 rover on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in July 2020 from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Base in Florida.
When it lands in the Jezero crater on February 18, 2021, the rover will also be the first spacecraft in the history of planetary exploration with the ability to accurately re-target its touch point during the landing sequence.
The 2020 rover will conduct geological assessments of its landing site on Mars, determine the livability of the environment, look for signs of the life of the ancient Martian and assess the natural resources and resources. the risks for future explorers.
In another first, scientists will use the instruments on board the rover to identify and collect rock and soil samples, lock them in sealed tubes and leave them on the surface of the planet for potential return to Earth when 39, a future mission on Mars.
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