As NASA prepares to head back to Mars in 2011, the space agency is developing the next generation of planetary explorers.
Nicknamed “hoppers,” the new vehicles could be used to explore a wider area on the Red Planet. Developed by Draper Laboratory, the concept vehicle would land on the Martian surface and then propulsively leap to interesting spots, traveling miles with each hop.
In a recent release, Draper says that two hopper vehicles could cover a total of 25 miles on Mars in only a few hours or days. As of September 8, NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity rovers have covered 19.14 miles altogether since they began exploring Mars in early 2004. Spirit is now stuck in soft sand and Opportunity has a top speed of 2 inches per second.
Draper is working with researchers at MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics on the Terrestrial Autonomous Lunar Reduced Gravity System (TALARIS), a 3-foot-wide testbed that uses a ducted fan propulsion system for lift and a compressed nitrogen gas system for maneuvering. While a hopping vehicle could travel miles with each leap, it would need a fuel supply instead of the solar power that runs the NASA rovers.
Draper has been working on several lander systems with NASA, such as ALHAT (Autonomous Landing and Hazard Avoidance Technology), but it is funding the hopper program itself. The agency, though, is curious about the concept.
“As we have been maturing the technology, interest from NASA has ranged from demonstrations and data requests to teaming on science mission proposals with Draper’s role commensurate with the technology,” Seamus Tuohy, director of space systems at Draper, said in an interview.
Leave a Reply