Mars methane is tough to hint, however an answer is perhaps on the best way.An early-stage airplane idea known as MAGGIE will quickly kick off a nine-month NASA-funded examine to discover its feasibility for hovering over Mars. It will not go to the Pink Planet any time quickly, if ever, however there is a clear science want for extra flying automobiles on Mars.NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter, the primary heavier-than-air car to soar on Mars, completed 72 flights after arriving with the Perseverance rover in February 2021. Whereas Ingenuity had a tough touchdown in January 2024 that grounded it for good, there’s loads of room for extra flying automobiles sooner or later. MAGGIE — brief for “Mars Aerial and Floor Clever Explorer” — is designed to function for a Martian 12 months (almost two Earth years) anyplace across the Pink Planet. Flying 3,300 toes (1,000 meters) above the floor, one in every of its prime missions may very well be discovering methane. That elusive molecule may very well be an indication of life, however scientists have had little luck determining its presence within the Martian ambiance after many years of looking out.Associated: Life after Ingenuity: How scientists hope to achieve the skies of Mars as soon as moreMethane, a doable biosignature fuel, has been laborious to search out on Mars. It pops up every so often within the ambiance, detectable by spacecraft on or orbiting the Pink Planet or by highly effective telescopes right here on Earth. NASA’s long-running Curiosity rover mission (ancestor to Perseverance), for instance, has repeatedly detected methane since 2012, however the ranges go up and down — a background stage of lower than 0.5 elements per billion (ppb) molecules of air, generally spiking as much as 20 ppb.The subsequent logical step may very well be a flying car like MAGGIE, principal investigator Gecheng Zha instructed Area.com. Zha is CEO of Coflow Jet and a professor on the College of Miami who obtained 9 months of funding below the NASA Progressive Superior Ideas (NIAC) program to discover this idea additional.Breaking house information, the most recent updates on rocket launches, skywatching occasions and extra!MAGGIE may keep within the air for a distance of 111 miles (179 km), its design suggests, on a single cost of its photo voltaic panels. Zha says high-resolution devices on board may pick hint quantities of methane within the ambiance, or different potential transient phenomena like liquid water on Mars. Higher but, “we are able to additionally land in anywhere we might prefer to get samples,” he instructed Area.com.A picture of NASA’s Curiosity rover on Mars composed of 57 separate pictures the rover took on Could 12, 2019. Curiosity has discovered transient indicators of methane on Mars. (Picture credit score: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS)MAGGIE’s presumed vary comes courtesy of patented know-how that will use air compressors to maintain the plane aloft. The air compressors transfer small quantities of ambiance from the again of the wings towards the entrance, each growing raise and decreasing drag. This course of would enable MAGGIE to be versatile for various temperatures and pressures of ambiance, permitting it to navigate the skinny air of Mars throughout totally different seasons and at totally different latitudes, notably throughout difficult seasons like winter. Usually, the Martian ambiance’s stress is between 6 and 10 millibars, only one one-hundredth of Earth’s floor stress, based on NASA. And in the course of the chilly season, roughly 25% of the ambiance condenses on the polar caps, inflicting an extra plunge in Pink Planet stress.Earlier than reaching Mars, MAGGIE should meet the main purpose of its NIAC part 1 examine, which is to find out if the airplane may certainly work within the skinny ambiance of Mars. “We’ll do extra car design and a feasibility examine, and we may even do the science mission,” Zha mentioned, emphasizing that companions reminiscent of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California may even be concerned on the science aspect.Subsequent up, if the preliminary MAGGIE examine goes nicely, will probably be inclusion within the two-year part 2 of NIAC to deepen the engineering and science work. A spread of investigations may fly on the mission, reminiscent of analyzing the unusual magnetic discipline of Mars, or photographing floor options in excessive definition, relying on the precedence.Zha has been engaged on the thought behind MAGGIE for greater than 20 years, totally on the engineering aspect. He obtained a number of grants earlier than this one, too, together with NASA funding for a sort of jet circulate management, and the Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company (DARPA) Award for Aviation Transports.He was glad to see Ingenuity take flight within the interim: “After we noticed the Ingenuity helicopter flying, it was very, very thrilling and galvanizing.” And he is wanting ahead to different Martian explorers taking to the skies as quickly as possible.That might occur comparatively rapidly, pending ongoing troubles with funding for NASA’s Mars Pattern Return program. The present idea suggests two helicopter fetchers may experience together with the return mission within the 2030s that will convey caches again from the floor, which had been collected by Perseverance.