NASA’s Next-Gen Mars Helicopter Rotors Are Moving Fast
7 May 2026, 18:32 GMT
Topic: Photojournal
Source URL: https://science.nasa.gov/photojournal/nasas-next-gen-mars-helicopter-rotors-are-moving-fast/
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