Helicopters on Mars: Science Benefits and Potential Instrument Payloads of Aerial Vehicles

The Mars 2020 mission Helicopter technical demonstration will show that UAVs can fly in the martian environment. In this study, we focus on a single, highly capable stand-alone helicopter capable of direct communication with an orbiter. This vehicle would have a total mass of 10-15 kg and a science payload capacity of up to 2-3 kg. Nominal flight durations of 7 minutes would enable traverses of 1 km laterally with vertical climbs of ≥ 200 m. A helicopter could cover more than 100 km in a fraction of the time required by a surface vehicle and access vertical exposures and steep slopes up close. The landing sites after each flight could provide direct access to targets of interest analogous to rover end-of-drive positions. Multiple possible scientific investigations could be enabled by such a vehicle: 1) Mapping and stratigraphy and structures along geologic contacts or features regions of interest; 2) Potential near-surface water-related targets such as recurring slope lineae - inaccessible to surface vehicles - could be investigated repeatedly with minimal risk of contamination; 3) Atmospheric studies of the planetary boundary layer, both vertically and horizontally, are particularly suited to an aerial vehicle; 4) Subsurface geophysical properties, near-surface volatiles, and even subsurface structure can be measured either aloft or at the surface; 5) Layered deposit, residual water ice, and strata freshly exposed by avalanches could be studied with a helicopter in summer, or potentially over an entire seasonal cycle if the vehicle can survive the winter; 6) Recently discovered ice deposits in non-polar latitudes could be investigated with a helicopter without risk of contamination. A number of low-mass science instruments are being considered that could fly on a future Mars helicopter to address the above objectives. Miniaturized instruments to accomplish the various scientific objectives within the payload capacity will be presented