Mars Helicopter all set to fly over Red Planet, chopper weighs less than 2 kg

You think helicopter is a thing of Earth? Well, not at all. Mars has got its own helicopter too. So what if it weighs not more than 2 kg.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (Nasa) Mars Helicopter is all set to fly over the Red Planet. Nasa's Mars Helicopter has successfully completed a series of tests and is ready to take flight over Mars.

"The next time we fly, we fly on Mars," MiMi Aung, Project Manager for Mars Helicopter at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement.

In late January 2019, all the pieces making up the flight model (actual vehicle going to the Red Planet) of Nasa's Mars Helicopter were put to the test.

MARS HELICOPTER

The Mars Helicopter will launch as a technology demonstrator with the Mars 2020 rover on a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket in July 2020 from the Space Launch Complex 41 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

It is expected to reach Mars in February 2021.

Weighing in at no more than 1.8 kg, the helicopter contains more than 1,500 individual pieces of carbon fibre, flight-grade aluminium, silicon, copper, foil and foam.