NASA is developing a trio of Mars helicopters for the SkyFall mission, planned to search for water near the Martian surface. After Ingenuity’s 2021–2024 demonstration of how rotorcraft can operate on Mars, NASA moves to a new effort focused on detecting frozen water within the top few meters of Martian regolith.
For the subsurface search, all three helicopters carry ground-penetrating radar. The distinguishing element described by outlets is a flexible, fabric-based antenna that extends beneath the spacecraft. Engineers say this antenna design supports the radar measurements needed to probe below the surface and identify potential water-related materials.
The coverage aligns on the mission goal—finding near-surface frozen water—and on the role of ground-penetrating radar aboard each helicopter. The differing emphasis is mainly on the antenna as the “revolutionary” or key instrument design, rather than on other mission details, which are not expanded in the provided excerpts.
