The Next Generation Of "Martian Helicopters" Are Taking Shape -- At JPL | NASA | Goddard...

As I often remind, we will almost certainly have very scant need for boots on Mars much before 2050 -- because our largely autonomous exo-planetary robotics programs are progressing so rapidly.

Here's that next tech advancing / installment -- on the SkyFall choppers, bound for Barsoom -- around 2030:

. . .When the trio of NASA’s SkyFall helicopters takes to the Martian skies, one of their tasks will be to hunt for frozen water — a critical resource for future astronauts — using ground-penetrating radar. For that radar to work, each rotorcraft will carry a flexible, fabric-based antenna that will need to extend below the aircraft without interfering with landings, or breaking upon impact. It is a specialized design for the mission, and it recently cleared a round of testing at the agency’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

Although orbiting spacecraft can map the thick Martian ice deposits tens of yards below the surface, they’re effectively blind to the top several yards of regolith, or broken rock and dust. This shallow zone is what will matter most for future astronauts, who will need to easily reach and process ice for water, oxygen, and fuel.

“The only way to detect shallow subsurface ice remotely is to fly close to the ground,” said Adrian Tang, SkyFall’s ground-penetrating radar lead instrument scientist at JPL. “By flying low and slow, a SkyFall helicopter could capture radar images that resolve the fine layering where dry soil gives way to ice, detecting its presence and mapping its extent. . . .”

To peer beneath the Martian surface, SkyFall’s ground-penetrating radar will use an ultra-wide frequency range — from 500 to 2,500 megahertz — corresponding to wavelengths of about 24 to 5 inches (60 to 12 centimeters). The longest wavelengths can penetrate several yards below the surface. The shorter wavelengths provide finer detail about the uppermost layers and surface texture.

This is where the unique antenna design comes in. A traditional antenna operating in that part of the electromagnetic spectrum would need to be 19 inches (48.3 centimeters) long and have a clear view of the ground, but the minimum clearance between Mars’ surface and the base of the helicopter’s fuselage is only about 6 inches (15.2 centimeters). The team needed an antenna that wouldn’t interfere with or be damaged by landing. . . .

So it is essentially "a sheet of cloth" formed into a fabric / antenna -- flexible and forgiving. And here's that YouTube video demonstrator:



Onward, smiling. . . .

नमस्ते