The search for water on Mars could include a hunt from Red Planet skies.
An early-stage vehicle, affectionately called MAGGIE, would search for water on Mars from high in the planet's atmosphere. In fact, MAGGIE just received its first tranche of funding from NASA on the long road to getting ready for flight.
While there's no timeline yet for the craft's first flight, another flying vehicle on Mars continues to exceed and excel. The Ingenuity helicopter on the Red Planet, originally built for a mere five flights, is well past 70 liftoffs and is still going strong. It's currently helping its rover partner, Perseverance, search for ancient water and life on the arid world.
Ingenuity is an incredible nod, agency officials stated earlier this month, to the power of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program as it represents the heritage of this helicopter's technology. So, looking to the success of Ingenuity, there's hope that MAGGIE may one day follow in its flight-steps and further explore Mars from the air.
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