This kind of space missions They are very important today for many space companies that have among their plans to send both robotic vehicles and people in the future.
Little by little we will discover more of Mars
The model is very similar to the helicopter that NASA made for the Perseverance mission. It landed on the red planet in February, while the Chinese robot did so in May. For the moment, United States and China They are the only countries in the world that have managed to put robots on the surface of Mars.
This United States helicopter is the Ingenuity and it made its first flight last April, managing to raise just over three meters above the ground. In this way, he became the first successful takeoff of an aircraft powered by human beings in a place other than Earth.
Although it seems easy to take flight, the Ingenuity has to face the thin atmosphere of the planet, which is a 1% denser than that of our planet.
In fact, to compensate for the helicopter’s lack of aerodynamics, NASA engineers equipped the helicopter with larger propellers (reaching 1.20 meters from end to end) and that rotate at a faster speed than it would take on Earth for an aircraft of its size to take off.
The importance of robots in space missions
The Ingenuity has made more than 10 trips to the red planet since its first takeoff in April, having traveled a distance of just over a kilometer and a half for a period of approximately 20 minutes.
The Chinese space agency has not yet given many more details, but this new helicopter could be used for Mars exploration as well as to carry out surveillance missions.
Like the Ingenuity, the Chinese robotic helicopter prototype features two rotor propellers, a sensor base, a camera and four slim legs. Nevertheless, it will not have a solar panel in its structure to get energy from it.