Without new landers or rovers, it's helicopters or bust for NASA's Mars program

[u/arstechnica]

http://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/without-new-landers-or-rovers-its-helicopters-or-bust-for-nasas-mars-program

[u/rewardingsnark]

Still waiting for first Space Blimp.

[u/djwaveguide → u/rewardingsnark]

It was proposed for Venus. Would be a great way to move around.

[u/RetroRaiderRun → u/djwaveguide]

It's the most viable way for a space craft to survive long term. Similar human "habitation" ideas involved giant floating habitation modules at altitudes high enough to not suffer from the oppressive pressure and temperatures of Venus. At the surface, the temprature is 465 °C (867 °F), and the surface pressure is about 92 to 93 times Earth's sea-level pressure.

[u/djwaveguide → u/RetroRaiderRun]

Blast from the past 2022 article on Venus balloon testing https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/jpls-venus-aerial-robotic-balloon-prototype-aces-test-flights/

[u/arstechnica]

For the first time in more than 30 years, NASA has no firm plans to send any new landers or rovers to Mars. Instead, the agency’s near-term focus at the red planet is on aerial drones, a pioneering mode of exploration that didn’t seem realistic until a few years ago.

The first real use of drones for science at Mars will come with the SkyFall mission, a fleet of three helicopters set for launch as soon as late 2028. SkyFall’s helicopters will ride to the red planet with NASA’s Space Reactor-1 “Freedom” mission, which has the primary objective of demonstrating nuclear electric propulsion in deep space.

The launch schedule is aggressive for SR-1 Freedom and SkyFall, projects that didn’t even exist in NASA’s portfolio six months ago. NASA’s plan for the SR-1 Freedom mission, estimated to cost $2.1 billion, calls for repurposing the core module of the canceled Gateway lunar space station into a testbed for nuclear electric propulsion. SkyFall will build on NASA’s success with the Ingenuity helicopter, an experimental vehicle that became the first rotorcraft to fly on another world in 2021.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is partnering with AeroVironment, a developer of high-altitude drones, to design and build the three SkyFall helicopters, plus one spare. The same team was behind the Ingenuity helicopter that landed on Mars with NASA’s Perseverance rover five years ago.

Full story: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/09/without-new-landers-or-rovers-its-helicopters-or-bust-for-nasas-mars-program/

[u/racinreaver]

"The same team" is doing some heavy lifting there considering the bulk of folks on Ingenuity left after being laid off, forced out, or pursuing other opportunities after it looked like NASA wasn't going to be funding anything big at JPL for a while.

[u/Main-Cheesecake3287 → u/racinreaver]

Yeah this is completely made up, nice job

[u/Electrical_Book4861]

Seems like years ago in Space.com forums there were many discussions about deploying many, smaller form factors probes (rovers, satellites, etc) to do more science then monolithic one hit wonders. I have loved our last 2 landers, from development to landing to the awesome science and images they've sent back. But I wouldn't mind seeing some of the little guys return like Spirit and Opportunity

[u/rddman → u/Electrical_Book4861]

many, smaller form factors probes (rovers, satellites, etc) to do more science then monolithic one hit wonders.

There's a bunch of instruments that areal drones just can not carry because of their small payload capacity. That's a bunch of science they won't do.

[u/rddman]

With aerial drones' small payload capacity they are very limited wrt to instruments they can carry. No sample analysis/chemistry/mineralogy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyFall_(helicopter)#Instruments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curiosity_(rover)#Scientific_instruments

[u/crooks4hire → u/rddman]

Drop a static research platform and use the drones to simply move material to the static analyzer platform.

Still low payload, but save a ton of weight not carrying or powering analysis equipment.