NASA announced last week that as part of the next Mars mission, a tiny, lightweight helicopter will zip around the Red Planet on a 30-day test flight. Dubbed the Mars Helicopter, the U.S. space agency is aiming to launch it alongside the Mars rover in July 2020. After the helicopter's rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are charged up and ready to go, the Mars Helicopter will take to the skies and make history. The Mars 2020 mission is expected to reach our planetary neighbour by February 2021. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)In order to test the helicopter in Earth's heavier atmosphere, NASA scientists first built a one-third scale model.

Source: CBC News May 17, 2018 07:52 UTC