{"id":640650,"date":"2026-08-16T20:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T20:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640650\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T20:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T20:14:14","slug":"we-just-got-a-glimpse-at-what-nasas-skyfall-helicopters-will-look-like-in-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/640650\/","title":{"rendered":"We just got a glimpse at what NASA\u2019s Skyfall helicopters will look like in action"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you just can’t wait for NASA’s<\/a> new Mars<\/a> helicopters to get to work, you can now see what they would look like in action. This week, the agency released an artist’s concept of the SkyFall<\/a> aircrafts flying over the red planet.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SkyFall is set to launch aboard NASA’s Space Reactor-1 Freedom in late 2028. NASA will use what it describes as a “daring mid-air deployment<\/a>” to deliver three helicopters equipped with advanced instruments for subsurface and infrared surface mapping, visible light imagery, temperature monitoring, and much more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new image shows the three helicopters scanning the Martian surface. According to a statement<\/a> from NASA, the green frequency waves emanating from the antennae depict the collection of subsurface radar data while the red beams depict the collection of near-infrared imagery data from crushed rock and dirt and other surfaces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The antennas you see in the image needed a lot of work to become a reality. The helicopters will be fitted with a unique flexible antenna<\/a> covered in polyester and Vectran, a high-performance manufactured fiber used to make landing airbags for Mars rovers. The design, which recently cleared a round of testing at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, is made to allow the helicopters to fly close enough to the ground without interfering with landing or breaking on impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The only way to detect shallow subsurface ice remotely is to fly close to the ground,” explained Adrian Tang<\/a>, SkyFall’s ground-penetrating radar lead instrument scientist. “By flying low and slow, a SkyFall helicopter could capture radar images that resolve the fine layering where dry soil gives way to ice, detecting its presence and mapping its extent.”<\/p>\n

While NASA’s first autonomous Mars helicopter Ingenuity needed to use the Perseverance rover as a relay station, SkyFall can independently transmit information to spacecraft orbiting Mars.<\/p>\n

Now, we just need to wait to see what’s under the Martian surface.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you just can’t wait for NASA’s new Mars helicopters to get to work, you can now see…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640651,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[270955,18,185131,19,270957,17,44386,1024,133,144714,451,270956],"class_list":["post-640650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-crushed-rock","tag-eire","tag-helicopters","tag-ie","tag-imagery-data","tag-ireland","tag-martian-surface","tag-nasa","tag-science","tag-skyfall","tag-space","tag-subsurface-radar-data"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117107023283031822","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640650\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}