NASA’s 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 […]