The United States develops Mars gliding machine

Human exploration of Mars's red planet is increasingly rising. After successfully took off the unmanned helicopter on Mars, American scientists put forward new ideas -a high -altitude glide machine that can fly continuously or even longer in Mars test.

The "Voice of the United States" website said on the 10th that the high -altitude glide machine was developed by the University of Arizona and the National Aeronautics and Space Agency (NASA). The person in charge of the project Alex Corin said in a statement that high -altitude glide machines will become precious resources to help NASA study important areas above Mars. Klin works at NASA's Mars Climate Modeling Center, which aims to study the current and past weather and climate activities on Mars. "The survey area of ​​the Mars gliding machine is a junction area between the surface and the atmosphere. This is the area where dust is collected and sent into the atmosphere. It is a place where trace gases are mixed. Too many related data. "For this reason, the Martian glider will contain a series of customized navigation sensors and the camera, temperature and gas sensor for collecting Mars atmosphere and geological information.

The reason why Mars is studying Mars with a high -altitude glide machine is that the relevant fields are close to gaps. "There are 8 spacecraft running around Mars, and 3 Mars cars are exploring the surface of Mars. But none of them can effectively collect data on the edge of Mars atmosphere." Although NASA has successfully tested the "Witary" small unmanned helicopter on Mars, it can only fly for a few minutes each time, the maximum flight height is only 12 meters, which is far from meeting the demand.

The Mars gliding machine is about 5 kg in the development, and the wing show is 3.35 meters. It is reported that traditional Martian detectors usually rely on solar energy and need additional batteries to run. The gliding machine is light, the cost is low, and it is completely driven by the wind. It can use Mars's natural wind without using an engine driver. Engineers revealed that gliding machines can still fly like a benchmark in long -distance flights. This is a method called "dynamic soaring". This is the characteristic of using horizontal wind speeds with the height of the terrain. Similar situations are common on Mars. ▲ (Chen Shan)