Martian Flyers
While Mars is probably the most heavily explored planet after our own, scientists are always looking for the next great way to see the sights on the Red Planet. One oft-dreamed-about concept would be a Mars sample return mission, which would fly a chunk of the surface back to Earth for closer study.
But the much cooler concepts involve nice little tours of Mars. While rovers have extended researchers’ range of view, an ideal situation would be a vehicle that can fly hundreds of miles to examine multiple locations over the course of a mission. Over the years, many have proposed such “hopper” missions, including engineer Robert Zubrin’s Gashopper (.pdf), which would use readily available carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere to create a simple rocket propellant, taking the vehicle for 20-mile jaunts. Add some wings to the mix, and the vehicle could fly to spy on distant terrain.
Another awesome concept is the Mars Cannon Assisted Flying Exploration (.pdf), or CAFE mission, which would fire small aircraft over specific regions such as a canyon. And one of the coolest ideas is the small flying robots seen seen in the video above, the brainchild of engineer Robert Michelson of Georgia Tech. Such a mission would deploy tiny insect-like “entomopters” from a mobile base on Mars. Rapidly flapping wings would allow the probes to fly with ease in the lighter Martian gravity, taking pictures of the landscape and potentially grabbing small samples for study.
Video: NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC)
Image: J.D. Denhar et al, Mars Cannon Assisted Flying Exploration (CAFE), Concepts and Approaches for Mars Exploration (2012)