India is gearing up for its second trip to Mars, but the mission is also likely to carry along a hardy helicopter that will buzz through the wafer-thin atmosphere of an alien world.
Jayadev Pradeep, a scientist with India’s government-run Space Physics Laboratory, told a recent webinar that a space drone planned for a Mars mission will carry payloads for the planet’s aerial exploration.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has not given details but local media and international space journals said the launch planned for 2031 will transport a helicopter besides a wheeled rover to the Red Planet and added that the rotorcraft is still a concept.
NASA’s lead
The Indian project has been inspired by NASA’s Ingenuity Mars helicopter which touched down on the red planet in February 2021 from a wheeled rover and recorded 72 powered sorties and racked up 14 times more flights than originally intended.
The spunky machine that dazzled the world not only proved flight was possible in the volatile Martian atmosphere but the 1.8-kilogram chopper achieved its prime missions which included 72 sorties before being grounded by rotor-blade damage in January 2024.
Scientist Pradeep, did not give further details of the Indian helicopter but reports said it would be capable of flying 100 meters in the Martian air which is vulnerable to buffeting solar winds.
𝐈𝐒𝐑𝐎 𝐓𝐨 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐀 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐓𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐬
— AsiaOne Magazine (@AsiaoneMagazine) February 21, 2024
India’s ISRO is gearing up to send a helicopter to Mars alongside a lander, marking a continuation of its space exploration efforts after the Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter Mission concluded in 2022.… pic.twitter.com/gPNTEWsL8k
"It will carry a set of devices for studying the atmosphere of Mars. Among them are a sensor for temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed, electric field, as well as dust sensors for measuring the vertical distribution of dust aerosols," the online publication said.
Mangalyaan-1, India's maiden voyage that reached Mars after flying 570 million kilometres deployed an orbital around the planet. The mission was designed to run for six months, but it lived well past its lifetime only to lose contact with the earth in 2022.
Mangalyaan-2 will allow its orbiter to operate closer to the Martian surface with a larger scientific payload that will include cameras and radar for a "better understanding of the planet’s crust and recent events such as boulder falls," an ISRO official added.
China, which is planning 100 launches to send 300 spacecraft into orbit in 2024, is said to be working on concepts for Mars drone, apparently drawing inspiration from NASA and Ingenuity, reports say.
Space dash
"The real story starts now," Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as he announced names of four air force pilots called for India’s first manned space travel this year.
India's Moonshot 🌕🚀
— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18News) October 10, 2023
India's space sector could grow to be worth $44 billion in the next decade.@INSPACeIND presents a vision document to the government to boost the space economy.
Watch @isro Chairman S Somnath, @INSPACeIND Chairman @GoenkaPk, Tata Nelco MD PJ Nath,… pic.twitter.com/XDV0jIEzjl
Modi, credited with spurring the growth in India’s space industry, added a majority of space equipment available locally has been made in India.
He said India’s space economy was likely to grow five times to touch 40.6 billion euros and turn the south Asian nation into a global commercial hub.
"In the past 10 years we launched 400 satellites while only 33 were launched in the previous 10 years," the prime minister said and listed business reforms that included foreign investors allowed into India’s state-controlled space sector.
"We aim to turn India into a developed country by 2047 and the space industry has a major role to play to achieve the target," Modi added.
Last August, an Indian spacecraft landed on the Moon to join an elite spacefaring club comprising China, Russia and the United States – the only nations to have ever achieved the feat.
