--- title: "NASA Shows Off SUV-Sized “Mars Chopper” With Six Rotor Blades" description: "NASA has shown off an early rendering of an enormous Mars Chopper concept, a follow-up to the space agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter." date: "2024-12-18" modified: "2024-12-18" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-mars-chopper" categories: - "Astronomy" - "Mars" - "NASA" - "Space" tags: - "ingenuity" - "mars chopper" - "mars helicopter" - "NASA" - "the digest" --- # NASA Shows Off SUV-Sized “Mars Chopper” With Six Rotor Blades ![NASA has shown off an early rendering of an enormous Mars Chopper concept, a follow-up to the space agency's Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.]() *\Image: NASA\* ## Mars Chopper NASA has shown off [early rendering**s**]() of an enormous Mars Chopper concept, a proposed follow-up to the space agency's groundbreaking Ingenuity Mars Helicopter. The six-rotor monstrosity could turn out to be "the size of an SUV," according to NASA, allowing it to carry science payloads up to 11 pounds across distances of up to 1.9 miles per Mars day. A [sleek animation]() shared by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab last week shows the massive three-legged drone gliding over a rugged, mountainous landscape. In other words, the Chopper could pick up right where Ingenuity left off. Its much smaller ancestor sent its final transmission back to Earth in April, bookending an astounding proof-of-concept mission. The four-pound rotorcraft, which became the [first-ever human-made object]() to take flight on a different planet in 2021, completed 72 flights in just under three years, which was an astonishing achievement, given that it was designed to fly only five times over 30 Mars days. Whether NASA's Chopper will get even close to that kind of success remains unclear, but now that Ingenuity has blazed its path, it's still entirely possible. https://youtu.be/uz4GaAE7OMQ ## Dune Fine According to NASA, the concept "remains in early conceptual and design stages." Its main task would be to assist scientists in studying even larger swathes of the Martian terrain, at relatively high speeds. In particular, the Chopper could go where rovers can't, allowing scientists to get an unprecedented glimpse of inaccessible areas of the Red Planet. Meanwhile, NASA scientists are still trying to get to the bottom of why its Ingenuity helicopter crashed on January 18 of this year, in its 72nd and final flight. Ahead of the release of a full technical report, the agency [suggested]() that the small craft's navigation system was confused by a sandy, featureless terrain, causing it to miscalculate its velocity and make a "hard impact on the sand ripple's slope." "When running an accident investigation from 100 million miles away, you don’t have any black boxes or eyewitnesses," said Ingenuity’s first pilot, Håvard Grip of JPL, in a [statement](). "While multiple scenarios are viable with the available data, we have one we believe is most likely: Lack of surface texture gave the navigation system too little information to work with." It's still unclear whether NASA will end up sending its much larger and even more ambitious Mars Chopper to the Red Planet. But if it ever does make the long journey, it'll have some big shoes to fill. **More on Ingenuity:** *[Dying Mars Helicopter Sends NASA Final Transmission]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()