Ingenuity marked a number of milestones in space exploration. Arguably most importantly, it proved that powered flight was possible on another planet. However, it did have some limitations, such as being tied to the Perseverance rover and there only being one copy of the helicopter itself. AV Inc, one of the sub-contractors for Ingenuity, hopes to fix those problems with a proposed new mission called Skyfall that would involve six helicopters and no rover.
Skyfall, which assumedly was at least partially named after the famous James Bond movie / ranch, is intended to scout potential mission locations for upcoming human missions. The helicopters will report back stable landing sites as well as the presence of resources such as water ice.
One of Skyfall’s primary advantages is the sheer amount of ground it can cover. With six helicopters, each of which is designed to operate independently and connect directly with Earth, the mission could far outpace any alternative scouting mission architectures. How exactly each helicopter would carry a communications system powerful enough to do that without being massively bigger, and therefore more of a drain on its battery, is unclear at this point.
Another advantage is its deployment scheme. Skyfall will also literally fall from the sky, but using the helicopters under their own power to descend to the planet’s surface after deploying from a landing vehicle. This would eliminate one of the most dangerous parts of any Mars mission – the actual landing.
AV Inc has form in sticking those even, or at least not having their system fall apart upon landing. As such, they plan to utilize many of the technologies originally developed for Ingenuity. After all, why fix something that operated successfully 32 times longer than originally planned. Also, Ingenuity was delivered on time and on budget – a relative rarity with novel space missions.
Video from AV describing the Skyfall mission. Credit – AV YouTube Channel
That fast work paced will serve the company well, as Skyfall is planned for launch during the 2028 Mars launch window. Meaning they would have a little more than three years to design, develop, test, and launch a complete Skyfall system. While by no means impossible, that is a pretty fast timeline in terms of mission development, even if much of the hardware is being reused from past ones.
But AV Inc seems up to the challenge – they are already putting their own resources into the mission, and were excited enough to issue a press release a few weeks ago. However, they will need support from NASA – specifically the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that helped them with Ingenuity’s design. Even though JPL plans to offload more of their responsibilities for Skyfall, there’s still the looming budget crisis at NASA to contend with.
Budget is probably the biggest potential hindrance to AV Inc’s plans at this point – they’ve already proven they can make the primary factor (i.e. controlled flight) of the mission work. With a little bit more development of the deployment mechanism, they could definitely have a functional system in three years. We’ll just have to see if there’s enough support in NASA’s space agency to continue development – but given that a major reason for the re-budgeting was to push more work onto private contractors, there’s hope for the Skyfall mission yet.
Fraser discusses the other helicopters that might be going to Mars.
Learn More:
AV Inc – AV Reveals Skyfall: Future Concept Next-Gen Mars Helicopters for Exploration and Human Landing Preparation
UT – Exploring Mars with Next-Generation Helicopters
UT – A Mars Chopper Mission Over Glaciers and Canyons
UT – Exploring Valles Marineris on Mars with Helicopters, Not Rovers