As per reports, ISRO is planning to send a lander to the Red Planet. The lander after touching down on the Mars surface will deploy a rover as well as a rotocopter (helicopter), reports claimed.
As reported, the Indian space agency is planning to send a drone or rotocopter to Mars. The drone will be like that of Nasa‘s Ingenuity quadcopter. The Ingenuity logged 72 flights over three years at Mars. It accumulated more than two hours of flight time, travelling 18 kilometers. That’s more than 14 times farther than planned, according to NASA. It soared as high as 24 metres and hit speeds of up to 36 kmph.
As per reports, Isro’s rotorcraft is still in the conceptual stage. It is expected to have several instruments such as temperature sensor, humidity sensor, pressure sensor, wind speed sensor, electric field sensor, trace species and dust sensor.
The helicopter is expected to fly as high as 100 metres in the thin Martian air to profile the atmosphere of the Red Planet.
According to reports, the drone is said to be equipped with an instrument suite named the Martian Boundary Layer Explorer (Marble), designed for aerial exploration of Mars.The report indicates that the drone will conduct vertical profiling of atmospheric factors and carry out in-situ measurements within the near-surface boundary layers of Mars.It is anticipated that the Marble mission will yield significant data to enhance our comprehension of Martian weather patterns and the historical climate of the planet. This information is essential for forecasting future conditions and potential hazards, as well as assisting in the strategic planning of upcoming exploration missions.
Earlier in 2013, ISRO became the fourth space agency to successfully send a spacecraft to Mars orbit with its Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which was India’s first interplanetary mission to planet Mars. It was launched onboard PSLV-C25 on November 05, 2013.
(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel)