Drone maker AeroVironment wins NASA Mars helicopter contract

(SpaceEnergy) US drone and space-systems maker AeroVironment has won a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory contract to co-design and co-manufacture three autonomous helicopters for the SkyFall Mars mission.

AeroVironment will lead design and production of the rotor systems, airframes, structures, avionics integration and science-payload accommodation, while NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will lead the power system, electronics, algorithms and software.

SkyFall will use a new deployment architecture in which the three helicopters are released directly from their carrier spacecraft into the Martian atmosphere. They will separate, deploy, descend and land under their own power, removing the need for a dedicated lander stage or host rover.

The aircraft build on AeroVironment and NASA’s work on the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter, which completed 72 flights. Each SkyFall vehicle will carry ground-penetrating radar to map shallow subsurface water ice, alongside instruments studying the Martian atmosphere and dust transport.

NASA currently plans to launch the mission in November 2028.