After Successfully Landing Plane, China Ambitious To Launch Helicopter Explorer On Mars

JAKARTA - China's science and space agency said it had developed a prototype mini helicopter for surveillance work on future missions on Mars. This is done after China was able to make a historic landing of the rover robot on the Red Planet a few months ago.

The prototype is similar in appearance to the Ingenuity robotic helicopter, which was developed by NASA for this year's mission. Sightings of this prototype spread through a photo posted on the website of China's National Center for Space Science on Wednesday.

The agency said the helicopter could serve as a tool for China's continued exploration of Mars, but did not provide details of the mission it will carry out.

China landed a Mars rover in May 2021 on its first mission to the planet Mars. They are the second country after the United States to do so. NASA's most advanced rover, Perseverance, landed on the planet in February.

From NASA's robotic rover, Ingenuity made its maiden flight in April, rising about 3 meters (10 ft) above the surface, in the first successful human-powered aircraft deployment on a world other than Earth.

The challenge for the 1.8 kg (4 lb) Smart Robot is the planet's thin atmosphere, which is only 1% denser than Earth's.

To compensate for the lack of aerodynamic lift, NASA engineers equipped the Ingenuity with rotor blades that are larger - 1.2 meters (4 ft) end-to-end - and spin faster than needed on Earth for an aircraft of its size.

Like the Ingenuity, this Chinese prototype has two rotor blades, a sensor and camera base, and four thin legs. But there aren't any solar panels at the top like Ingenuity does, according to the photo.

Ingenuity has performed more than 10 tors since April, covering an overall distance of more than 2 km (1.2 miles) with a flight time of about 20 minutes overall.