The Indian Space Research Organisation is planning to send a helicopter to Mars, taking cues from Nasa’s Ingenuity quadcopter. The rotorcraft is in the conceptual stage and will carry several instruments.
The UAV will carry Marble a.k.a the Martian Boundary Layer Explorer, that will have a suite of payloads for aerial exploration of Mars. The aerial vehicle will be designed to be capable of flying up to 100 meters in the thin Martian air to profile the Martian atmosphere.
The Indian space agency’s hopes have been bolstered by Nasa’s Ingenuity helicopter that completed 72 flights in the thin Martian air. Ingenuity was built as a demonstration mission and only five flights were planned. However, the rotorcraft kept flying for 72 missions before it was grounded in January this year.
The information was shared by Jayadev Pradeep, a scientist with the Space Physics Laboratory at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, during a webinar on Marble.
It will conduct a high-resolution vertical profiling of critical atmospheric parameters and perform first-of-its-kind in-situ measurements in the near-surface boundary layers of Mars. The payloads will include temperature sensor, humidity sensor, pressure sensor, wind speed sensor, electric field sensor, and the trace species and dust sensor to measure vertical distribution of dust aerosols.
Isro management has been looking at plans to send a follow-up mission to Mangalyaan, which will land on the surface of Mars. The UAV is expected to be part of the mission and will accompany the lander to the Red Planet.
India’s maiden Mars mission, Mangalyaan, reached its end of life in 2022 after spending close to a decade around the Red Planet. Isro confirmed that the Mangalyaan has reached its end of life after completing years of interplanetary journey as its fuel reserve depleted.
Isro chief S Somanath, has said that the mission gifted an understanding of Martian surface features, morphology, Martian atmosphere, and of the composition of various gases in the Martian exosphere.
The mission could capture the full disc image of Mars because of its elliptical orbit and generate an atlas of Mars with the help of the colour camera onboard the mission, Isro further said in its statement.
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Shambhu Kumar is a science communicator, making complex scientific topics accessible to all. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
