NASA's Future Exploration of Mars to Involve Scouting Helicopter Drones?

NASA's unmanned explorations on Mars have been nothing short of historic, so now they are planning ways to continue such advancement.

For one, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is exploring the possibility of a helicopter-like drone to perform scouting missions for the rover on the ground. The Curiosity rover experienced significant wear and tear on its tires as it trekked the Martian terrain, so a scouting drone may be a remedy.

Speaking with Space.com, newly appointed Curiosity project scientist Ashwin Vasavada said the rover was "healthy" when he took over the position John Grotzinger previously held.

"Our arrival at Mount Sharp coincided with our having largely resolved the wheel-damage issue," Vasavada said. "Barring things that are hard to predict, like something breaking or wearing out, no.

"We do know that the RTG [radioisotope thermoelectric generator] power source will degrade over time," he said. "For the next two to four years, we will be able to operate with generally the same pace of operations and same energy budget that we have become used to. But after that, we will start to have limited discretionary energy, and will need to spread some activities that we might do in a single day now across a number of days. That's a limitation of this rover as opposed to something like MER that uses solar panels."

NASA also launched the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) in Nov. 2013 to study the Red Planet's atmosphere. The satellite is meant to compliment the rover's work on the ground.

Where Curiosity improved on the Opportunity and Spirit rovers, NASA wants its next unmanned rover to go beyond what Curiosity did.

"The helicopter would fly ahead of the rover almost every day, checking out various possible points of interest and helping engineers back on Earth plan the best driving route," NASA said in a statement. "Scientists could also use the helicopter images to look for features for the rover to study in further detail. Another part of the helicopter's job would be to check out the best places for the rover to collect key samples and rocks for a cache, which a next-generation rover could pick up later."