Leonard David's INSIDE OUTER SPACE

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU

Work is now underway to shape a new NASA Mars helicopter design. There are a lot of add-ons beyond the Ingenuity aerial vehicle that has been busily buzzing the distant and distinct planet.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Thanks to Ingenuity’s nearly 50 hops across the Jezero Crater landscape, much has been learned to soup-up a future rotorcraft for the Red Planet.

For more information, go to my new Space.com story – “NASA sets sights on a next-generation Mars helicopter to return Red Planet samples” at:

https://www.space.com/mars-sample-return-next-generation-helicopter