172,000,069 miles away
And NASA is going to fly a drone on Mars from 172+ million miles away!
What an amazing achievement!
It's a truly advanced mini helicopter. Give ya an idea:
$15 million dollars invested in development.
An additional $23 million dollars added into the project in 2018 to speed things up so that it could go on the mission to Mars.
Over $80 million in total spent on building the helicopter & then an additional $5 million to be able to operate the helicopter. That's a lot of money spent on a remote drone! But it's built to be one if the best ever made. And to be able to fly within a rocket launch and to be able to drop from underneath a Mars rover to go solo and do it's own thing.
Doesn't look like a big deal, but it is, as yesterday it was captured on video from the rover - showing preparation for flight by spinning up the blades and performing various tests. Tomorrow night will be the flight.
Reply With Quote
