Soon the Rovers will begin to help special drones.
Recently, it was reported that at the moment, NASA is in full swing to create a special drone helicopter that will help the Rover program Mars 2020 Rover Mission in the exploration area. Representatives NASA have informed that in a short time on Mars can be sent a miniature drone that is designed for reconnoitering the terrain and the transfer of relevant information on the Rover, stating that this development can go sailing with the mission of the Mars 2020 Rover.
However, the main problem in creating such a drone is that on Mars the atmospheric pressure (near the surface) is less than one hundredth that on earth. It uses a rotor of any helicopter to climb. At reduced pressure is necessary to produce an increase in the plane of the screw or accelerate its rotation.
At the moment, the drone, passing a series of tests, has a weight of two kilograms and equipped with blades longer than 1 meter. It will be based on Board the Rover and, if necessary, to make flights for the purpose of exploration of the territory.
The estimated coverage area of the UAV during one flight is 500 kV/m. To provide power on Board the drone will install solar panels. Drone-scout is a necessary attribute for the Rover to do this, there are two main reasons.
First, it stall during communication. Here the main problem is that communication with the Mars set two times per Sol (Martian day – a little more than 24 hours) and make about 6-9 minutes. In this regard, scientists managed only to get the results yesterday, and then issued a programme of action for the next day and then the cycle happens anew.
The additional exploration carried out, with the airspace would give a significant acceleration of the process of moving the Rover on the planet’s surface. Second, the supervision of the movement of the Rover is realized through the use of data obtained as a result of the analysis of images of the Martian surface, which were obtained via satellite and using the camera the Rover.
There arise two problems. One of them is insufficient detail and lack of little details that have developed. All this makes it virtually impossible the preparation of an effective travel plan, as in these materials is not always possible to dismantle the obstacles that may in fact be insurmountable.
The second problem is the camera of the Rover, as it is a relatively small device, the point at which shooting is at a low level, therefore, the angle and the range of his review is limited. The drone scout will be a great intermediate that allows to specify information about the environment the Rover location.
