" W hat science could you do with a helicopter on Mars? " Robotics expert and aerospace systems engineer Bob Balaram (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) posed that out-of-the-blue question to his JPL colleague Matt Golombek back in the fall of 2013. After " a momentary and slightly stunned silence, " Matt, a planetary geologist and project scientist for the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, thought back to when Opportunity was exploring the 800-meter-wide (half-mile-wide) Martian crater Victoria in the late 2000s. The rover team had needed to spend nearly a year driving from promontory to promontory along the rim, mapping the crater's topography and exposed outcrops at high enough resolution to be able to eventually drive down into it. Had the rover carried some sort of scouting drone, like a helicopter equipped with cameras, it " could have collected superior stereo images of the crater walls from inside the crater - where the rover could not go - in just a few sols, " Matt says. JPL robotics experts like Bob had been working up ideas and prototypes for powered flying vehicles on other worlds Radio antenna Communicates with Earth via Perseverance rover Solar Panel Charges battery Blades Counter-rotate to provide lift in Mars's thin atmosphere BODY Legs Insulation & Heaters Protect electronics from cold Martian nights Batteries Sensors & Cameras Collect data on speed, direction, and surroundings Avionics Computer " brains " provide navigation and function HELICOPTER ANATOMY The tissue box-size body carries two downwardpointing cameras and various hardware to keep Ingenuity working in Mars's harsh environment. sk yand tele scope .o r g * AUGUST 2022 13 NASA / JPL-CALTECH (2)http://www.skyandtelescope.com