While this aircraft is still in the development phase, it will be able to search for hard-to-find traces of life in the Red Planet’s atmosphere.
NASA is funding the MAGGIE Mars rover, which could detect methane on Mars, but doing so is very difficult. The craft won’t be returning to the Red Planet anytime soon, but NASA believes it’s essential for the exploration of flying vehicles on Mars. We remind you that the Ingenuity helicopter, so far the only aircraft on Mars, stopped operating on the planet in January of this year, writes Space.
In Focus. Technologies emerged telegram channel. Subscribe to avoid missing the latest and most exciting news from the world of science!
The future Mars rover is called MAGGIE, which stands for Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer. For now, this is just a concept in its early stages of development.
However, the aircraft is planned to be able to operate anywhere on the Red Planet for a Martian year (almost 2 Earth years). It will fly at an altitude of 1 km above the surface and one of its main missions will be to search for methane in the atmosphere. This elusive molecule could be a sign of life, but scientists have so far had difficulty detecting its presence in the Martian atmosphere.
Methane occasionally appears in the atmosphere and can be detected by rovers or orbiters. For example, the Curiosity rover has repeatedly found methane in the atmosphere, but its levels rose and fell. In all cases very little methane was detected. That’s why the MAGGIE drone was designed to solve the mystery of methane on Mars.
The solar-powered aircraft is expected to travel 179 km on a single battery charge. Developers of the future vehicle say onboard devices could detect traces of methane in the atmosphere or other potential transients, such as liquid water on Mars. Moreover, the plane will be able to land anywhere on Mars to take samples.
MAGGIE’s estimated range is based on proprietary technology that will use air compressors to keep the aircraft airborne. Air compressors move a small portion of the atmosphere forward from behind the wings, simultaneously increasing lift and reducing drag. This will allow MAGGIE to adapt to different atmospheric temperatures and pressures and navigate Mars’ thin air at different times of the year and at different latitudes.
But before the plane can go to Mars, developers must prove that such a plane can operate in the thin atmosphere of the Red Planet. If this phase is completed successfully and NASA gives 9 months for it, larger-scale development will begin, which will last 2 years.
And only after that, if everything goes well, prototyping and testing will begin. Therefore, the Mars plane will be able to go to Mars by the end of the decade at the latest.
As I already wrote FocusAstronomers have moved closer to solving a long-standing mystery and calculated the speed of a neutron star jet for the first time. The speed of the jet is lower than the speed of the same event in black holes, but the new discovery is crucial to understanding the nature of these superdense objects in space.
Moreover Focus He wrote that scientists discovered a particle in a meteorite that emerged as a result of a new type of cosmic explosion and came from outside the solar system.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.