NASA to start helicopters to help return rock samples from Mars

Heather Hamilton

July 28, 11:11 AM July 28, 11:11 AM

NASA announced it would start two far more mini helicopters to Mars in an work to return gathered Martian rocks and soil to Earth.

The area program's Perseverance rover has collected 11 samples to day, according to a report.

Under NASA's new strategy, possibly Perseverance or the helicopters will be utilised to load the samples onto a rocket that will return them to Earth a 10 years from now.

There is "a diversity of supplies previously in the bag, so to communicate, and seriously thrilled about the likely for bringing these back," said Arizona Condition University's Meenakshi Wadhwa, chief scientist for the retrieval work.

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The helicopters will reportedly be modeled immediately after NASA's Ingenuity, which has accomplished 29 flights considering that arriving at Mars early past year. They will each weigh 4 lbs . and have wheels and grappling arms.

Jeff Gramling, director of NASA's Mars sample return system, mentioned the helicopters would be created to load a single sample tube at a time.

"We have confidence that we can count on Perseverance to deliver the samples back again, and we've included the helicopters as a backup means," Gramling stated.

NASA explained more rock drilling is prepared with the hopes of returning as many as 30 samples from Mars in 2031 with a contact-down on Earth in 2033.