Nav Systems Find Great Test Range in the Mojave

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has been working on their future Martian helicopters, after Ingenuity was such a smashing success.

Surprisingly, it’s kind of difficult to ship a helicopter to Mars, given the distance, so they’ve had to search around to see if the meme is true that “we have Mars at home”. The closest we got is the Dumont Dunes, in the Mojave Desert, and so far it’s working pretty well. Researchers have been designing the next generation of martian rotorcraft using the arid region. Sure, the gravity is different, the sand isn’t the same, and the winds aren’t as brutal as Mars… but the cost savings really help those developmental dollars go far! As it happens, the most important part of testing in the Mojave is that featurelessness: Navigation systems need to be trained on endless sands and rolling landscapes.

The Extended Robust Aerial Autonomy program was chosen along with 24 other projects for continuation earlier this year. They’ll follow up on the Ingenuity project with a bigger, longer program now that the first helo proved the concept sound. The navigational weakness of Ingenuity is being tackled now, since its last few flights became difficult among the rolling dunes. 

“Ingenuity was designed to fly over well-textured terrain, estimating its motion by looking at visual features on the ground. But eventually it had to cross over blander areas where this became hard,” said Roland Brockers, a JPL researcher and drone pilot. “We want future vehicles to be more versatile and not have to worry about flying over challenging areas like these sand dunes.”

FMI: www.jpl.nasa.gov