NASA wants to send an ambitious fleet of helicopters to soar through Martian skies—but scientists fear the endeavor could crater existing Red Planet research missions.
In March NASA unveiled SkyFall, a flashy proposal for packing three identical helicopters into a first-of-its-kind nuclear-propelled spacecraft to be launched to Mars in late 2028. But the announcement caught many planetary scientists unaware. They say it’s unclear how SkyFall would support their decades-long endeavor to search for signs of ancient habitability and life on Mars by bringing samples from that world back to Earth for intensive study. This Mars Sample Return project was well underway, with specimens cached on Mars ready for retrieval, but is now in limbo because of budget cuts. Scientists worry that SkyFall, with its still unclear price tag, could distract from efforts to revive that program while also cannibalizing funds from other ongoing Mars missions within the agency’s cash-strapped science division.
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