NASA’s Next-Gen Mars Helicopter Rotors Are Moving Fast
1 Min Read NASA’s Next-Gen Mars Helicopter Rotors Are Moving Fast PIA26648 Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech Photojournal Navigation Science Photojournal NASA’s Next-Gen Mars… Photojournal Home Photojournal Search Latest Content Galleries Feedback RSS About Downloads NASA’s Next-Gen Mars Helicopter Rotors Are Moving Fast JPEG (1.34 MB) Description Engineer Jaakko Karras inspects a next-generation Mars helicopter rotor blade prior to supersonic speed testing in the 25-Foot Space Simulator at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California in November 2025. The three-bladed rotor hanging horizontally in the foreground is the next-gen rotor being tested. The vertically aligned two-bladed rotor provided a “headwind,” enabling the tips of the three-bladed rotor to go beyond Mach 1. Data from the tests indicat...
