Mon, Dec 05, 2022
Simulated Martian Operation to Gauge Suitability for Long-Range Control
Red Cat subsidiary Skypersonic has delivered its rover equipment for a simulated Mars expedition at the Johnson Space Center.
The rover package includes the rover itself, the necessary support hardware, and a drone system that will allow the crew of NASA’s Simulated Mars Missions program to remotely explore Martianesque terrain on Earth. The 1,700 sq ft Mars habitat resides at the Center's range in Houston, Texas.
As a part of the broader sim project, crew members under Simulated Mars Missions CHAPEA will spend a year living and working in a habitat designed and built to simulate life on a Martian colony. Skypersonic's drones and rover will be tested somewhere sufficiently mountainous on earth to assess their readiness, controlled from afar by Houston personnel. Last August, Skypersonic aided in testing their drones on the volcanic, Italian slopes of Mount Etna. Their rover made a fine showing, operating within the GPS dead zone to no ill effect.
“This recent delivery is the latest milestone in our five-year contract with NASA to provide drone and rover hardware, software, and support to the Simulated Mars Missions,” said Skypersonic CEO Giuseppe Santangelo. "We look forward to working closely with the Simulated Mars Missions crews in the coming years to develop and test the prototype of the first drones and rovers to be used by humans on Mars. The challenges are great – extremely thin atmosphere, dramatically cold temperatures, a largely unknown environment – but I am confident we will prevail and advance the science of our industry in the process."
More News
An Amazing Experience Awaits The Chosen Few... Oshkosh, to us, seems the perfect place to get started on watching aviation recover the past couple of years... and so ANN is putting>[...]
“NBAA has a tremendous responsibility to the business aviation industry, and we are constantly collaborating with them. Our flight departments, professionals and aircraft own>[...]
Dead Reckoning Dead reckoning, as applied to flying, is the navigation of an airplane solely by means of computations based on airspeed, course, heading, wind direction, and speed,>[...]
Aero Linx: Vertical Aviation Safety Team (VAST) We are a public–private initiative to enhance worldwide flight operations safety in all segments of the vertical flight indust>[...]
We're Everywhere... Thanks To You! Even with the vast resources and incredibly far-reaching scope of the Aero-News Network, every now and then a story that should be reported on sl>[...]