NASA announced that they will be including a helicopter test as part of the 2020 rover mission. I am sure many people heard this news (or no one heard it, except us few geeks who love space) and said “big deal, why does that matter?” The Martian atmosphere is significantly thinner than our own planets…like 99% less dense than our own. The article says that when the helicopter is on the surface, that is the equivalent of being 100,000 feet up on Earth. This will be an impressive display of engineering if they can get it to work and make this something usable in future missions.
Very cool.
