Special design of the aircraft with the goal of finding life on Mars

NASA is sponsoring a project to develop an aircraft with a special design, capable of flying on Mars to search for signs of life on the "Red Planet".

The United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has invested in a nine-month research project to develop an aircraft capable of flying on Mars to conduct in-depth studies of the planet. This.

The aircraft, called MAGGIE (short for "Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer" ), is designed to take off and land vertically.

The plane has a long wing with the upper surface covered with solar panels, allowing the plane to travel a distance of 179km per full battery charge.

Special design concept of MAGGIE, the aircraft used to search for life on Mars. (Photo: Ghe-Cheng Zha).

MAGGIE will be designed to be able to operate flexibly in the thin Martian atmosphere , in many different weather conditions, especially even during the harsh Martian winter.

Typically, atmospheric pressure on Mars ranges from 6 to 10 millibars, only 1% of the pressure on Earth's surface. The average temperature on the surface of Mars is -60 degrees Celsius and can drop to -125 degrees Celsius in winter. At this time, the pressure of Mars will decrease even more, making it difficult for aircraft to fly.

MAGGIE will be designed to operate continuously on Mars for 1 year (according to the Martian calendar, equivalent to 1 year and 320 days on Earth) and can fly anywhere on the surface of Mars, at high altitude. The maximum can reach 1,000 meters. MAGGIE can also land on any surface on Mars to retrieve and analyze samples, then send data back to scientists on Earth.

One of MAGGIE's main missions is to search for methane on Mars . Methane is considered a sign of life, but scientists have had difficulty finding the existence of methane in the Martian atmosphere after many decades.

The MAGGIE aircraft will be equipped with extremely sensitive sensors and meters to be able to detect extremely small amounts of methane in the atmosphere of Mars, or other potential phenomena on the " Red Planet" such as water or liquid.

Methane, a gas that could be a biological signature of life, is difficult to detect on Mars. These gas molecules occasionally appear in the Martian atmosphere, but the concentrations frequently change, making them difficult for scientists to collect for analysis.

MAGGIE is currently developed by Coflow Jet, a company that develops jet technology and space technology. Before being sent to Mars, MAGGIE must be tested to ensure its ability to take off and move in the thin Martian atmosphere.

If it cannot pass the tests, it cannot be ruled out that MAGGIE will still only stop at a test product and will never be launched to Mars.

Before MAGGIE, NASA also brought to Mars an unmanned helicopter called Ingenuity, weighing only about 2kg, launched to Mars to test the ability of a flying object to operate in the Martian environment. , which has different gravity and atmosphere than Earth.

The Ingenuity helicopter made history with its flight on April 19, 2021. In the distance is the Mars exploration rover Perseverance. (Photo: NASA).

On April 19, 2021, the Ingenuity helicopter made the first flight on Mars, marking a historic milestone when a human-designed object took off on the "Red Planet".

Ingenuity successfully conducted 72 different flights on Mars, before completely ceasing operations last January. Ingenuity has completed its mission to demonstrate that flying vehicles can take off on Mars to conduct research missions on the planet.