Helicopters on Mars and other Flights of Fancy

 As NASA's latest Mars rover, Perseverance, touches down on the red planet, Mike Bodnar looks to the skies...

The closest I'll get to Mars: a two-week stay at the
Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, 2012

I blame a madman with a monocle for making me want to go to Mars. You know the sort – what we used to call a 'boffin', a mad scientist type. Unruly hair, exaggerated gesticulations, rapid-talking, one eyebrow raised perpetually in alarm or astonishment – all the clichés of the nutty professor.

Except in this case he wasn't mad, just extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about space and astronomy, and he wanted to pass that enthusiasm on to others, especially youngsters. Cue Sir Patrick Moore's entrance, stage right. Or preferably, lowered from above per deus ex machina.

Patrick Moore, as he simply was when I first watched him on the BBC's monthly Sky at Night programme – he later became Sir Patrick – was already a legend when I discovered him in the early 1960s. Not only was he the host of the Sky at Night, but also author of many books, mostly illustrated texts on astronomy, but also – crucially for me – some science fiction.

Sir Patrick Moore, author, astronomer, motivator
Image: The Royal Society

Even at the age of seven or so I was mad keen on all things space, and from there on I made it my mission to boldly go and read everything I could on the universe and space exploration. I devoured every single sci-fi book Huyton Library and nearby branches had on their shelves.

Thus it was that I discovered that Patrick Moore had written a series of Mars novels, set in a future when the red planet had been (sparsely) colonised on an international basis, with various habitat domes dotted here and there for research and exploration. Spacecraft travelled back and forth between Mars and Earth on a regular basis, but as the red planet's atmosphere was unbreathably thin and toxic, with freezing cold temperatures and unknown perils, there was always danger lurking in the wings. (Or even with wings!)

I was enthralled. What I didn't know at the time was that some of the things that Moore was writing about would come true, although I hoped in my heart of hearts that they all would, and within my lifetime. I wanted to go to Mars.

Blue Origin's New Shepherd vehicle
Image: Blue Origin

Elon Musk hadn't been born then of course, and Jeff Bezos was just a twinkle in his
mother's eye, although Richard Branson beat me to the nursery by four years. But Patrick Moore didn't reckon on space exploration becoming the domain of billionaires and private enterprise; his vision was one of international cooperation by government space agencies (which of course we have with the International Space Station), with Mars being explored by scientists of all nations working together. If robotic probes had earlier been sent to scout Mars, Moore didn't mention them, but he did predict something that even I thought unlikely at the time: helicopters.

Moore's Mars envisaged helicopters being used for exploration of the planet's surface, and as transport between key locations. And as NASA's latest rover Perseverance lands on Mars it carries with it the first ever Martian helicopter. Moore will be looking down with approval from wherever he is now, perhaps he's somewhere on Mars.

Ingenuity. Image: NASA

The helicopter about to help explore the red planet is called Ingenuity. Its mission is to scout a pathway for its parent Perseverance, finding places of interest to investigate, and areas of risk to avoid.

It is however more like the sort of model remote control helicopter that you might buy from an electronics shop or online. It is about the size of a toaster, and its twin counter-rotating rotors (four feet across) have to spin at a staggering 2,400rpm to be able to fly in Mars's thin atmosphere. Terrestrial helicopter rotors spin at only about 400rpm. But importantly, it is equipped with a camera, so maybe we'll get to see some exciting close-quarter aerial views of Mars, while the possibilities for Instagrammable pics of Perseverance traversing the landscape are endless.

Vintage choppers on Mars

Patrick Moore's Martian choppers very much reflected the state of helicopter technology of the late 1950s, and the book cover of Peril on Mars looks comical today, not helped by the astronauts all looking like Bender from Futurama. But then, 60 or 70 years from now, what will people be saying about our present-day visions of the future? They'll likely be falling off their hover stools.

I interviewed Dr. Moore (as he was then) in the mid-1980s and when I asked if he would sign my copies of his Mars novels he agreed without hesitation, although he seemed embarrassed to have authored them at all. When I told him his books had inspired me, he muttered, 'Oh dear.'

In Patrick's defence, no science fiction writer – or indeed any of us – can accurately predict the future, mainly because we just don't know what unexpected influences will come to bear on the progress of spaceflight, space technology, society, or human endeavour. I did read one sci-fi novel where space exploration faced real challenges from the 'New Morality' government of Earth, a scenario not light years away from the Earth/Mars/Asteroid Belt conflicts of Netflix's The Expanse. And who knows? We only need a major religious movement to take control and next thing you know in God's name all space exploration could be cancelled in the beat of an angel's wings.

But that's the fun of science fiction; it takes imaginative leaps into all possibilities, so in the end, some scenarios which we read or watch today will actually come to pass.

A Starship test launch. Image: MIT Technology Review

Some already have; when I was reading sci-fi from the 60s and 70s, space rockets were usually long, pointy and had fins. They would launch off their tail fins and land on their tail fins, and they all looked basically like Hitler's V2 rockets.

In the intervening decades, rockets have indeed looked similar to that and have launched the same way; not a lot has changed. In fact, the principle of a rocket being a tube full of combustible fuel which, once ignited, spews flame and energy from the base thereby pushing the rocket upwards and into orbit is exactly the same today as it was in 1969 when Apollo 11 headed for the moon. Or when Hitler was trying to destroy London in 1944 and '45. Or indeed when the Chinese were using rockets for warlike purposes in 1232 AD.

Sure, some of the fuels and engine technology have changed, but the principle is still the same. However, as Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos have both amply demonstrated, bringing a rocket booster back to Earth and landing it safely on its tail can actually work. So we now have reusable rockets, which have been a mainstay of science fiction novels, movies and television programmes since, well, forever.

Novels about robotic landers such as Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity going to Mars and being operated from Earth very slowly and carefully don't make for gripping story lines, especially since they haven't yet photographed any Martians, so we can perhaps forgive sci-fi novelists for not concentrating on them quite as much.

But we do live in an age of increasing excitement in space exploration. Patrick Moore was ahead of his time when, in his Mars novels, he predicted terraforming, where humankind attempts to turn Mars into a more Earth-like planet, with an oxygen-enriched atmosphere and plant life. (Spoiler alert: it all goes horribly wrong in a Jurassic Park-type way). And today there are plenty of people who believe that over time – many thousands of years – Mars could become a second Earth. Which is fine as long as a climate colder than Antarctica is what you like. Or your name is Elon Musk.

Perseverance. Image: NASA 

Meanwhile, we are on the doorstep of the final frontier, and there's plenty happening this year. Three spacecraft have just arrived at Mars, including NASA's Perseverance, so there will be more analysis of the red planet than ever before. Richard Branson is poised – still – to take tourists to space and back via Virgin Galactic, while Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin could make some more breakthroughs this year. We don't know much about Blue Origin's plans as Bezos plays his cards close to his chest.

Elon Musk's Starship enterprise (no pun intended, but you're welcome) continues to advance at – what is for space technology development – breakneck speed. His ongoing Falcon launch schedule looks like being its busiest this year, while the Starship tests stand to wow us with ever-increasing altitudes and – hopefully – smooth landings. In the end, Mars is Starship's destination, but for the moment we'll have to be satisfied with the existing rover programmes.

And I haven't even touched on the space programmes in India, the UAE, Russia, China, Europe and other places.

Virgin Galactic. Image: British GQ Magazine

I'm most unlikely to ever make it to the red planet, or even off the Earth. When he wrote them in the late 1950s, Patrick Moore envisaged his Mars novels being set around 1968, but as we know, Neil and Buzz didn't even set foot on the moon till a year later, so to make predictions as to when the first humans will walk on Mars is inviting ridicule. I don't like to be ridiculed so I'm not even going to try.

Instead I'll be happy to watch The Mars Show courtesy of Perseverance and Ingenuity. Bring it on.

(Unless of course I win big on the lottery, in which case I'll be buying a ticket on a Virgin Galactic trip to space. That would suit me.)