NASA’s Ingenuity, imaged by the Perseverance rover April 7. China has now developed its own prototype Mars rotorcraft. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
China is looking at ways of expanding its space exploration capabilities including through a vehicle similar in appearance to NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter.
A prototype of “Mars surface cruise drone” passed a final acceptance review Aug. 20, the National Space Science Center (NSSC) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) announced Wednesday.
The rotorcraft was one of three projects in a technology cultivation program promoted by the NSSC. The vehicle project was led by Bian Chunjiang of the NSSC and features a micro spectrometer.
