NASA recently pushed the rotor blades of its next-generation Mars helicopter to Mach 1.08 at its famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Pasadena, California.
JPL is testing a high-performance version of the original Ingenuity helicopter that flew 72 flights between April 2021 and January 2024.
Here on Earth, it's unheard of for a helicopter's rotor blades to break the sound barrier.
However, because of what the next version of this helicopter will be required to do, supersonic rotor blades fit the brief perfectly.
In a March 2026 news release, NASA detailed its initiatives towards achieving the National Space Policy, and previewed the mission featuring the next Mars helicopter that will fly before the end of 2028.
NASA recently pushed the rotor blades of its next-generation Mars helicopter to Mach 1.08 at its famed Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) near Pasadena, California. JPL is testing a high-performance version of the original Ingenuity helicopter that flew 72 flights between April 2021 and January 2024. Here on Earth, it's unheard of for a helicopter's rotor blades to break the sound barrier. However, because of what the next version of this helicopter will be required to do, supersonic rotor blades fit the brief perfectly.
As previously reported by BGR, the next-generation Mars helicopter will feature a flight control system called "Autonomy," which has AI-based systems that can be called upon if the helicopter runs into trouble, and recovers itself to a safe landing spot. In a March 2026 news release, NASA detailed its initiatives towards achieving the National Space Policy, and previewed the mission featuring the next Mars helicopter that will fly before the end of 2028. Three Ingenuity-class helicopters will form part of the Skyfall payload, to be delivered to Mars on a mission packed with innovation.
The mechanism used to deploy the helicopters will be just as ingenious as most of JPL's historic Mars missions. It addresses one of the most time-consuming problems previously faced when it comes to getting exploration vehicles from Mars' orbit to the surface. Previously, teams at JPL had designed bouncing vehicles that were surrounded by huge air bags to protect them as they were dropped from a descending parachute, bouncing several times before coming to a stop. The delivery of NASA's last two rovers — Curiosity and Perseverance — was even more impressive, featuring the sky crane maneuver that used a thruster platform to lower the heavy rovers down to the surface with ropes, before translating away from the landing site for a hard landing at a safe distance. JPL's newest landing technique will see the helicopters simply take off while the payload is still in the air.
