After the small Ingenuity Mars helicopter blew everyone away with its performance, it became clear that a future mission to Mars should involve more helicopters like it, with even more capabilities. The main proposal here is NASA’s SkyFall mission, which would involve three autonomous helicopters, capable of searching for resources such as water. To do this they would need a ground-penetrating radar system, with the antenna somewhat foldable for landings, an idea that JPL is currently testing. The SkyFall mission is currently scheduled to begin in 2028, after which it will be deployed from the Space Reactor-1 fission reactor-powered spacecraft based around elements of the now-discarded Lunar Gateway space station. Obviously, this raises some uncertainties about when and if this mission will actually take place, but that doesn’t stop JPL engineers from solving problems with these SkyFall helicopters. Since the ground-penetrating radar antenna extends beyond the landing legs, it was crucial that the antenna be flexible enough to simply fold over itself like a cloth. To do this they used an existing flexible antenna design called Vivaldi, which was scaled down for helicopters and subsequently tested to see how many simulated landings on Mars it would be able to withstand, as well as the effect of cold nights and warm days. We can’t wait to see these SkyFall helicopters fly over the Martian surface. Maybe they can even stop by Ingenuity while they’re in the neighborhood.
