Something Strange Was Spotted Moving Across the Surface of Mars

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-29

[00:00:03]NASA's Mars helicopter captured images that immediately raised questions.

[00:00:09]During several flights above the Martian surface, the drone recorded strange holes, fractured terrain, and unusual rock formations that looked completely different from the surrounding landscape. Some of the openings appeared almost tunnel-like.

[00:00:26]Others looked like collapsed sections of ground, as if parts of the surface had caved in. And in a few images, scientists noticed patterns in the terrain that looked surprisingly similar to erosion features created by water on Earth. Naturally, the internet jumped to extreme conclusions.

[00:00:46]Some people even speculated that the holes could be signs of underground life or hidden caves beneath the surface of Mars. The reality is probably less dramatic, but the discoveries are still important because they may reveal something scientists have been trying to confirm for decades.

[00:01:06]Mars may still contain significant amounts of water underground.

[00:01:10]NASA's helicopter, Ingenuity, was originally designed as a simple technology experiment. Engineers only expected it to complete a handful of short flights after arriving on Mars with the Perseverance rover in 2021.

[00:01:26]Instead, the small drone survived far longer than expected and gave scientists something they had never truly had before on Mars. Detailed lowaltitude aerial exploration.

[00:01:39]That changed everything. From orbit, Mars can look flat and uniform. But flying just a few meters above the ground revealed an entirely different picture. The helicopter captured highresolution views of cliffs, fractured rock fields, steep crater edges, and strange depressions scattered across the landscape. Some of the most interesting features were spotted inside and around Jezero Crater, an ancient basin scientists believe once contained a large lake billions of years ago.

[00:02:13]Several images showed holes and collapsed pits in the surface that resemble geological features known as lava tubes or subsurface collapse chambers. On Earth, these structures form when underground lava tunnels empty out and the surface above them collapses.

[00:02:32]Scientists are especially interested in these formations because underground caves could protect water ice from evaporation and radiation.

[00:02:42]That matters because modern Mars is extremely hostile. Surface temperatures can fall below 100° C and the atmosphere is so thin that liquid water cannot remain stable for long on the surface.

[00:02:57]But underground is a different story.

[00:03:00]Radar observations from orbit already suggest that parts of Mars may still contain buried ice deposits and possibly even underground reservoirs of salty liquid water. Now, the drone imagery may be helping scientists identify locations where underground structures are exposed near the surface. Some rock formations photographed by Ingenuity also show layering patterns that strongly resemble sedimentary rocks formed in water-rich environments on Earth. These layers appear stacked in thin horizontal sequences, suggesting that water may have carried and deposited material over long periods of time. In several locations, scientists observed smooth rounded rocks mixed among sharper fractured terrain. On Earth, rocks often become rounded after being transported by flowing water for long distances.

[00:03:56]That does not prove Mars once had rivers everywhere, but it adds to growing evidence that large amounts of water shaped parts of the planet billions of years ago. The drone also captured images of fractured cliff sections and broken terrain that appear to have partially collapsed. In some cases, it almost looks as if pieces of the Martian surface broke away entirely. Researchers believe many of these fractures were likely caused by ancient volcanic activity, impacts, or the slow expansion and contraction of underground ice. As ice forms and melts beneath the surface over millions of years, the ground above it can weaken and collapse. This creates pits, cracks, and hollow spaces that are now visible from the air. Some scientists think these underground cavities could become extremely important for future human missions.

[00:04:52]Lava tubes and subsurface caves may provide natural protection from radiation, dust storms, and extreme temperature swings. In other words, the same strange holes that sparked speculation online could eventually become shelters for astronauts.

[00:05:10]At the same time, these discoveries are helping scientists better understand how active Mars once was. Today, the planet looks frozen and lifeless. But billions of years ago, Mars may have had rivers, lakes, flooding events, volcanic eruptions, and possibly long-term habitable environments.

[00:05:33]The evidence for that ancient activity is still scattered across the surface.

[00:05:38]And because Ingenuity was able to explore Mars from low altitude, it revealed details that orbiters and rovers often miss. The helicopter was never supposed to make major discoveries. It was built simply to test whether powered flight was possible in an atmosphere about 100 times thinner than Earth's. Instead, it ended up giving scientists one of the clearest close-range views of the Martian surface ever captured. And some of the things it saw are making researchers rethink how much of Mars may still be hiding underground.

[00:06:16]There are tons of weird things on Mars.

[00:06:18]Spoons, noodles, doors, even faces. Are they all really just rocks? Besides, it's not the only planet in our solar system full of mysterious things. Let's check them out.

[00:06:33]Recently, we found a strange thing on Mars that looks like a smooth spoon-like object. It grabbed everyone's attention after NASA's Curiosity rover spotted it.

[00:06:42]The rock with a handle and rounded tip looks like it's floating in the rover's photo. People on the internet are puzzled about what it might be. Some are joking that it's a Martian's bowling pin or even a shoe horn left by extraterrestrial creatures, but Andrew Good from NASA says it's not that exciting. Turns out it's just a rock shaped by the wind over a long time.

[00:07:05]These kinds of rocks with odd shapes are common on Mars. They're called ventifacts.

[00:07:11]Ventifact is a rock that can get scratched, dented, or smoothed out by tiny particles carried by the wind.

[00:07:18]You'll usually find these kinds of rocks in dry places where there's not much grass or trees to block the wind, and where there's a lot of sand blowing around. Sometimes the wind can carve bentifacts into really cool shapes, like the mushroom rocks you can see in the White Desert National Park in Egypt.

[00:07:35]These rocks look like giant mushrooms because the wind wears away the bottom part faster than the top, making them stand tall and slim.

[00:07:46]Ventifacts aren't the only cool Martian rocks. Check out this series of surreal spikes protruding from the red surface.

[00:07:53]NASA's Curiosity rover stumbled upon them while exploring the Gail Crater on Mars. They quickly caught everyone's attention. twisting structures resembling spikes looked like some extraterrestrial doors. Even the SETI Institute, an organization focused on searching for extraterrestrial life, tweeted about the image, referring to it as a cool rock. But in reality, these are just hoodos. These tall and thin spires occur when hard rock sits at top softer rock layers. Martian spikes are likely cemented fillings of ancient fractures in sedimentary rock with softer material eroded away over time.

[00:08:32]Again, there are many hoodos on Earth, too. They're also called fairy chimneys or tent rocks. You can find them in places like Utah's Bryce Canyon and the Colorado Plateau. NASA is excited about these weird structures because they can help us learn more about the history of the Gail Crater.

[00:08:53]There was also a rock that looked like a jelly donut. We called this rock Pinnacle Island. It was spotted by NASA's cameras. However, just 4 days earlier, it was nowhere to be seen. So, how did it magically disappear? In a very anticlimactic way, it was kicked up by one of Opportun's wheels as it traversed the Martian terrain. But there's still some mystery surrounding that jelly donut. analysis revealed that Pinnacle Island contains unusually high levels of sulfur and manganese. Both of these things are water soluble. In other words, there might have been some water action that created these elements in the rock. So, this tiny thing suddenly caused a lot of drama and an entire lawsuit against NASA. It claimed that the agency failed to investigate a possible fungus growing on Mars. M jelly donut fungus.

[00:09:49]But not all our findings are natural.

[00:09:52]Another puzzling discovery was this thing the Perseverance rover spotted.

[00:09:56]It's something that looks like tangled spaghetti or string. Just like the donut, this mysterious object showed up in a rover camera image and then vanished from the sandy ground in several days. It turns out that it could be debris from the rover's landing system. Perseverance landed in the Jazerero crater in February 2021. It had a rough landing and accidentally scattered debris around. Some of these debris pieces have been showing up in the rover's images for a while now. The string-like object is likely a piece of shredded dacron netting, which is a type of fiber used in thermal blankets. These blankets help regulate equipment temperatures during the super hot process of landing on Mars. It probably underwent significant unraveling and shredding due to strong forces during the landing.

[00:10:49]Thermal blankets lost a bunch of stuff back then. For example, this shiny foil piece spotted in June. The rover found it on a rock. What's remarkable is how far some of the debris has traveled. The rover landed about 1.2 mi away from where it's currently exploring. It's probably because the crash threw the debris into the air and the Martian winds carried over such a distance. Mars is known for its strong winds which can move lightweight objects. However, while it's fun to stumble upon them on images, there are concerns about the debris and trash on Mars. We haven't even fixed this problem on Earth, and we're already creating it on Mars. The debris we left on the red planet is already accumulating in an area called Hogwall Flats. Plus, the debris can accidentally contaminate the sample tubes used for collecting Martian rocks. So far, NASA isn't overly worried about this, but they're keeping a close eye on it to prevent any issues with the rovers.

[00:11:56]Now, how about not things, but animals?

[00:11:59]Curiosity caused quite a stir when it captured something that looked like a rat on Mars. Some started speculating that it could be evidence of indigenous Martian life or even that this rodent was brought along by curiosity.

[00:12:14]But the Mars rat once again turned out to be just a weird rock. It looked interesting because of the natural processes like wind erosion and mechanical abrasion. We also found some worm looking things. Curiosity snapped a picture of a formation that looks like worms wriggling across the Martian landscape. Despite its tiny size, this formation stands out with its unique shape and rough texture. It's probably made of durable material resistant to Mars's harsh erosion.

[00:12:49]And finally, our top mysterious finding is the face on Mars. Sedonia is a region on Mars that has captured both scientific and popular interest. It's located in Mars' northern hemisphere. It lies between heavily cratered regions to the south and relatively smooth plains to the north. There's a theory that the northern plains may have once been ocean beds. Maybe Sidonia was once a coastal zone. This place is full of interesting and beautiful features that tell us a lot about the history of the red planet.

[00:13:24]But its most interesting feature was the Martian face.

[00:13:29]This thing gained widespread attention when it was snapped by the Viking 1 orbiter in 1976.

[00:13:35]Some believed that it was evidence of a longlost Martian civilization.

[00:13:40]At first, NASA dismissed it as a trick of light and shadow, but after some analysis, it turned out to be, yep, another rock. We also saw a face of a bear. It was captured by the highresolution imaging experiment camera. In an image, we can see a circular fracture pattern that looks like a bear's head with two craters forming the eyes and a V-shaped collapse structure like the nose. The head likely formed because something heavy settled on top of an old hole in the ground.

[00:14:14]This hole was filled with either lava or mud. The nose-like feature is speculated to be a volcanic or mud vent.

[00:14:25]But why do we keep seeing these strange things on Mars? Sometimes our brains can trick us into seeing things like faces or objects in rocks and other things.

[00:14:35]But these are just illusions called periodolia.

[00:14:38]Periodia is a psychological phenomenon that makes us see familiar patterns or shapes, especially faces, where none actually exist. It's because the brain encounters something it doesn't recognize or understand right away. It tries to find things that look the most like this one. So, it sees random patterns, textures, or sounds as something meaningful and recognizable.

[00:15:02]That's why a chair and clothes on it seems like a super creepy humanlike figure at night. It also causes you to see faces or shapes in clouds or hear recognizable sounds and even words in random noise. It's a fascinating proof of the power of our perception. But we also should be careful with it and not let our imagination run wild.

[00:15:26]There's a huge hole on Mars, more than 300 ft wide. And it seems that NASA agrees that it could be an opening into an underground world. Could a mysterious space civilization be hiding in there?

[00:15:39]Well, experts from NASA think that the hole might lead to a lower layer under the surface of the red planet. You can think of it like a trap door that opens into a basement. Scientists care a lot about holes like this because they might connect to big underground caves. These caves would be hidden from the surface and could be safer places for life to exist.

[00:16:00]You see, Mars's surface is a rough place. It's freezing cold, extremely dry, and constantly hit by radiation.

[00:16:09]Meanwhile, underground spaces are different. They're like natural shelters, protecting anything inside.

[00:16:16]That's what makes them some of the best places to look for signs of life on Mars.

[00:16:22]Interestingly, NASA is usually very careful when talking about life on other planets. Until now, most researchers have been focusing on tiny life forms like microbes, which might be hiding in frozen oceans on nearby planets and moons. But now, scientists really think this hole could lead to huge underground caves. If that's true, besides looking for signs of life, this spy could become a target for future astronauts since the caves could turn into great shelters and even a Martian base.

[00:16:55]The photo with the hole isn't new. It was taken in 2017 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. In the image, we can see many holes scattered across the ground. The area basically looks like Swiss cheese. Most of the holes have dark, dusty ground under a thin layer of light colored frozen carbon dioxide, aka dry ice. But one hole stands out from the rest. It's perfectly round, sits in the upper part of the image and is about 328 ft wide. That's a massive opening.

[00:17:27]The hole also has a perfectly round crater around it. It's like something punched through the surface and left a ring behind. Scientists think it may have been caused by a meteor impact.

[00:17:38]Scientists believe Mars was much more like Earth billions of years ago with better conditions for life. But today, the best chance of finding signs of life is underground. Mars no longer has a strong magnetic field or a thick atmosphere. So, its surface is constantly blasted by harmful radiation from space. Underground caves or lava tubes act like natural bunkers, shielding anything inside from that radiation. This makes them the most promising places to search for life.

[00:18:07]Because of that protection, astronauts might one day find signs of past life there or even fossils. To hunt for these hidden spaces, NASA brought in experts on underground structures and seismic activity from the US Geological Survey.

[00:18:23]In 2019, they released a detailed map showing more than 1,000 possible cave entrances scattered all over Mars.

[00:18:31]There's a catch, though. All of this data comes from spacecraft flying about 250 mi above the Martian surface. From that height, scientists can spot holes, but they can't see how deep they go or what's underneath. Some may be true caves, while others could just be shallow dents in the rock. Other missions, including the European Space Ay's Mars Express, have also found signs of ancient lava tubes beneath Mars' long extinct volcanoes. But what makes this newly released image stand out is that it clearly shows at least one hole that appears to lead into an unknown underground layer. And if current plans come true, the earliest human astronauts could see this massive opening with their own eyes in the 2030s. And maybe they'll also be able to examine another Martian mystery. For more than 50 years, scientists have been puzzled by about 2 million dark streaks spread across the surface of Mars. These black marks look like long stains or shadows running downhill. It's almost like someone spilled ink on the planet. They were first spotted in the 1970s, and for decades, no one could explain what caused them. These marks are called slope streaks. They appear on steep slopes, crater walls, and ridges all over Mars. From far away, they look flat and dark. At first, scientists thought the streaks were caused by melting ice.

[00:19:58]This could create muddy landslides similar to wet dirt sliding down a hill on Earth. Even today, researchers still believe the streaks come from landslides, but not the kind involving water. New research using data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows that most of these streaks are caused by dry landslides. Instead of mud or water, it's loose dust suddenly slipping downhill, more like dry sand pouring off a pile when it gets disturbed. This explains how the streaks can form in Mars' cold, dry environment. One famous example is on Apollinaris Mons. It's an extinct volcano south of Mars' equator.

[00:20:38]On one side of a ridge, hundreds of streaks run side by side, which makes the surface look like a barcode. These streaks appeared sometime between 2013 and 2017.

[00:20:50]Scientists figured out a bit later that a nearby meteoroid impact could have triggered them. The impact didn't hit the ridge directly, but the shock shook the ground and it was enough to send dust downhill.

[00:21:02]Now, because some streaks appeared after impacts, many scientists thought that meteoroids or Mars quakes were responsible for creating most slope streaks. But a new study shows that this idea is kind of wrong. The study in question looked at about 2.1 million slope streaks. They were photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over a long period from 2006 to 2024.

[00:21:27]Scientists have estimated that Mars has around 1.6 million slope streaks in total. But some streaks have been counted more than once because they appear in different image sets. So after analyzing all this data, researchers have concluded that almost all new streaks form because of wind and dust, not impacts or quakes. Look, seasons change on Mars, and winds slowly move dust and sand. When that loose material suddenly slips downhill, it leaves behind a dark streak. It's like brushing dust off a surface and revealing a darker layer underneath.

[00:22:02]Meteoroid impacts and Mars quakes do create some streaks, too, but only in very specific spots. Overall, they play a very small role. Less than.1% of new slope streaks are caused by impacts and Mars quakes.

[00:22:18]The analysis has also shown that slope streaks are not spread evenly across Mars. They're grouped into five main regions.

[00:22:28]In each of these areas, new streaks usually form during times of the year when winds are strongest. There's a key tipping point called the dust movement threshold. Once winds get strong enough to lift and move dust, the loose material on slopes becomes unstable.

[00:22:45]When that happens, dust can suddenly slide downhill, creating a dark streak.

[00:22:51]This is similar to how strong winds on Mars can kick up dust and form spinning columns called dust devils. They're like small tornadoes moving across the planet's flat planes. One reason this mystery took so long to solve is that these streaks form when scientists can't easily see them happen. The conditions that create new streaks usually occur around sunrise and sunset. And because this phenomenon happens in low light, no spacecraft has directly watched a streak form in real time. The study also calculated how often new streaks appear.

[00:23:26]On average, about.5 new streaks form each year for every existing streak. And since Mars has around 1.6 million slope streaks, that's roughly 80,000 new streaks forming every year. Most streaks seem to stick around for several decades before they slowly fade away. However, scientists don't yet have enough long-term data to be completely sure.

[00:23:48]Another cool discovery, even though slope streaks cover less than.1% of Mars's surface, they may be one of the biggest sources of dust in the Martian atmosphere. In other words, these small looking features may play a much larger role than we expected. That's why understanding how slope streaks move dust around Mars is important. Mars' dust affects weather, visibility, and even how much sunlight reaches the ground. That matters a lot for future human colonies, which would need stable conditions to survive and operate safely.

[00:24:28]>> And we have liftoff of Mars local surveyor as America begins its journey back to the red planet.

[00:24:36]There's a weird structure on Mars, a square, a near perfect square standing alone in the endless red desert. And it looks too perfect, too precise to be anything but artificial. Nature is chaotic, and it rarely makes things look so deliberate. So, the internet took one look at it and lost its mind, as the internet tends to do. The image spread like a virus on social media, igniting every conspiracy theory you can think of. Some were convinced it was proof that intelligent life had once tread upon the Martian sands. Well, let's dive in and sort it out.

[00:25:14]The image is real, and it's really old.

[00:25:16]The thing, not the picture. NASA's Mars Orbiter camera snapped it in 2001, capturing a tiny slice of Martian terrain, and there sat the square. Now, is that evidence for intelligent life?

[00:25:29]Well, Mars is an empty world now, a rustcoled desert.

[00:25:38]But once long ago, it may have been something else entirely. A planet filled with roaring rivers, vast oceans, and thick clouds rolling across the sky.

[00:25:48]Now, in a world like that, life, if it ever had a chance, could have taken root. And there's a possibility it did.

[00:25:56]Scientists think that life could have existed on Mars in a short period from around 4.1 to 3 billion years ago. It could have started during the early era of Martian history called the Noahian period and lasted all the way to the late Hesperian period. Meanwhile, here on Earth, the first oceans were just forming. Life on our planet was just beginning in the form of tiny bacteria in deep sea hydrothermal vents. While Mars was already fully wet, on Earth, there were no plants or animals, just microscopic life trying to survive.

[00:26:32]So, Mars took the lead in the life game.

[00:26:34]It had a much thicker atmosphere, which could have trapped enough heat to keep water liquid. Valley networks, huge traces across the red landscape, show us the incredible story of rainfall, rivers, and lakes. Huge asteroids were still hitting Mars at the time and they could have brought organic molecules with them. But if that's true, what happened? And where did life go? A recent NASA study suggests that the answer is more complicated than we thought. Astronomers believe that something drastic happened to Mars, like boom, and its cozy climate was gone, its atmosphere thin. Without a strong magnetic field like Earth's to protect it, solar radiation stripped away the air, leaving Mars cold and dry. The ocean simply evaporated. Some of the water escaped into space while the rest froze underground or became locked in polar ice caps.

[00:27:30]Today, all that remains is a ghostly memory. Dry channels and salty mineral deposits.

[00:27:39]But it looks like the transition wasn't sudden at all. It was slow and gradual.

[00:27:44]The planet was changing from wet and warm to cold and dry over millions of years. In fact, Mars kept its ocean even after the temperatures dropped to freezing. Some parts of Mars, especially the northern lowlands, might have remained wet for many, many centuries.

[00:28:01]Shouldn't the water freeze when it gets below 32° F? Well, yeah. But there are many reasons why this miracle happened, like Mars' thick atmosphere and warm water traveling through currents. And during that time we mentioned before, from Noashian to the late Hesperion, life could have found a way.

[00:28:24]Microbes on Earth thrive in some of the harshest places beneath Antarctic ice, in deep sea vents, in toxic volcanic lakes. Hey, life doesn't care. So these times in Martian history would be amazing for it. But don't be mistaken.

[00:28:39]Mars was never a paradise. Even during its cozy times, it wasn't as lush and green as we might imagine. In its early days, Mars was something more extreme, something closer to the young earth.

[00:28:51]During the Noashian period, it was warm yet wet. Then the climate shifted into the Hisperian period. Oceans were stretching across the northern lowlands.

[00:29:01]Temperatures dropped and snow piled high, forming massive glaciers in the south, transforming the planet into an icy world. Finding microscopic life at that time is possible. But an intelligent civilization, eh, that's less likely.

[00:29:19]The square that went viral isn't evidence for intelligent life yet. And here's why. First things first, people freak out because nature doesn't make straight lines. But that's not really true. Actually, nature does it all the time. For example, here on Earth, we have the Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, a beautiful field of hexagonal basalt columns. These are completely natural. They're formed by volcanic activity. There's also the Devil's Tower in Wyoming. Hey, remember it from the Close Encounters movie in the 80s?

[00:29:52]That's a symmetrical rock formation, and it was created by erosion. However, if we looked at these things from space, they'd look artificial.

[00:30:01]So, what is the square? How about a fracture pattern in the rock or some terrain that's broken apart along straight lines due to stress? This happens on Earth all the time when rock expands and contracts over time. And on Mars, the surface is just constantly battered by meteors, winds, and extreme temperature shifts. No wonder rock gets stressed. What happens here is another case of paridolia. It's our brain's favorite thing to spot patterns in something random. Hey, we evolved like this. So sometimes we might look at natural objects and see insane stuff.

[00:30:39]Faces on trees, animals, and clouds, shapes, and so on. Besides, NASA has been photographing Mars for decades. We have highresolution images of craters, mountains, valleys, riverbeds, hey, everything. Wouldn't an ancient civilization leave us well something better than some squarel-like rock? Even though things erode over time, we'd find more signs, roads, foundations, artifacts, ruins, or at least something.

[00:31:08]Though, to be fair, we do see something.

[00:31:10]The square wouldn't be the first time Mars has played tricks on us. Over the years, we've spotted everything from tunnels to carved faces, even Bigfoot.

[00:31:20]Or this doorway, for example. A perfectly cut rectangular opening.

[00:31:25]That's what people saw when NASA's Curiosity rover sent back an image of the east cliffs on Mount Sharp. It's almost like an ancient passage leading deep into the surface. You just need to go in and find some fantastic underground base.

[00:31:41]Well, NASA decided to take a closer look at it. It turns out it's just 12 in tall and 16 in wide, the size of a dog door.

[00:31:50]That's because what we're looking at isn't a doorway, but an open fracture, a break in the rock that happens naturally over time. These kinds of cracks are extremely common both on Earth and on Mars. They form when bedrock is stressed, expands, contracts, or gets eroded by wind and tide. If you walk through a desert here on Earth, you'd see plenty of similar shapes. Canyons, cliffs, and even boulders have fractures that from the right angle might look like doorways. They're just not getting photographed by NASA. Also, the straightness of lines turns out to be just a trick of perspective. If you zoom out, you'll see that it's just one small break in a much bigger rock formation or the infamous Sidonia face. The photo was taken back in 1976 by NASA's Viking 1 orbiter when it was scanning Mars in the region known as Sidonia. It captured what looked like a massive humanoid face, a rocky formation about 1.2 miles long. And this one face inspired books, documentaries, movies, and podcasts.

[00:33:00]But when NASA's Viking orbiters first took pictures of Sidonia, the cameras weren't super advanced. The image of the face had a low resolution and made the details fuzzy. NASA's later missions had far better cameras. And when Mars Global Surveyor revisited Sidonia in 2001, the truth was undeniable. The face was just a hill, a lumpy rock formation with ridges and depressions carved by wind and erosion. And in 2006, during another mission, a colored image with insanely high detail was made. No traces of face left there whatsoever. That's another paridolia trick for you. Now, Mars has plenty of secrets left to uncover, but they will be related to its fascinating history, not some secret ancient civilization. The conclusion is don't trust everything you see online.

[00:33:51]Sometimes a mysterious rock is just a rock.

[00:33:58]Hey, you know what would be pretty cool?

[00:34:00]having a tiny helicopter on Mars that can buzz around and scan the environment from above, taking pictures and looking for hidden extraterrestrial life on its own. At some point, somebody at NASA said something like this behind closed doors. Then they went and actually did it. Say hello to Jenny. One of the most significant scientific achievements since we first started exploring space back in 2020. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory or JPL packed a tiny side project onto the Mars mission. It was called Ingenuity, a flying experiment meant to test if powered flight was even possible on another planet. Just proof of concept, a test demo. The real mission was to explore the surface of Mars with the rover called Perseverance.

[00:34:53]In 2021, this six- wheeled robotic scientist about the size of a small SUV landed on Mars in a place called Jezero Crater. Scientists believe there was once a lake here about 3.5 billion years ago. That's important because where there's ancient water, there might have been ancient extraterrestrial life.

[00:35:15]Perseverance is basically a science lab on wheels. It can study rocks, drill into the surface, and stash samples in little sealed tubes for later. These samples are part of a long-term plan.

[00:35:28]NASA and ESSA plan to bring them back to Earth in 2033 for more study.

[00:35:34]This could finally answer, has life ever existed outside Earth? Maybe samples won't give the definitive answer, but it's our best shot. H suddenly 2033 seems very far away.

[00:35:49]The rover has other instruments and testing tools that could greatly benefit future exploration of Mars. But the hero of this story is Jenny. They got the idea for this little chopper from drones here on Earth and thought it could fly around and scout for Perseverance.

[00:36:04]However, actually making it work on Mars sounds almost impossible.

[00:36:10]The first problem was the atmosphere.

[00:36:13]Mars has approximately only 1% of Earth's air pressure, which means there's barely anything to push against.

[00:36:20]On Earth, chopper blades bite into thick air to generate lift. Since there's basically no air on Mars, it's sort of like trying to swim in fog instead of water. Then there's gravity. Sure, it's only about 38% of Earth's, which helps a bit, but not nearly enough to offset the lack of air. To fly at all, the device would have to be feather light with huge blades spinning like crazy just to grab onto the thin air. Oh, and there's also the cold. At night, temperatures plunge to -130° F, which is approximately the same as the coldest night ever recorded in Antarctica. That's enough to damage most electronics, and batteries hate the cold. So Jenny charged up during the day with a tiny solar panel, then used that power to keep warm through the freezing Martian night. Every day, scientists had to hope that their drone worth $80 million wouldn't land under a hill in a shadow, especially since it couldn't be controlled manually.

[00:37:24]Mars is so far away that signals can take up to 20 minutes to get there.

[00:37:30]Imagine playing a video game where your character has that kind of delay after you press a button. Jinny had to be fully autonomous. All these technological technicalities, and yet Jinny did not simply fly. What was first planned as a 30-day test trial with five flights ended up being a full-fledged support mission that lasted 3 years.

[00:37:53]So, how did engineers pull it off?

[00:37:56]First, they had to make Jenny as light as physically possible. Only 4 lb.

[00:38:02]That's lighter than my house cat. But somehow it still carried two cameras, a battery, a flight computer, a radio antenna, and even a heater. Everything had to be trimmed down or miniaturized.

[00:38:16]Then came the blades. Jinny's most important feature. On Earth, a small helicopter spins its blades between 400 and 500 RPM. But we explained why that wouldn't work on Mars. So Jenny's two rotor blades had to spin five times faster, about 2,500 revolutions per minute. Each blade was about 2 ft long, made from carbon fiber, light as a feather, but tough as nails. And instead of sitting side by side like on a drone, those blades were stacked on top of each other, spinning in opposite directions.

[00:38:51]that cancels out the twisting force you'd normally get from a single spinning blade.

[00:38:57]You know how helicopters have that tiny tail rotor in the back? They need that because when their main rotor on top spins to lift the chopper up, it also creates a twisting force called torque.

[00:39:09]That makes the entire vehicle want to spin in the opposite direction. Without some way to fight that, you'd end up doing donuts in the sky.

[00:39:18]However, Jenny couldn't have a tail rotor because it would add too much weight, take more power, and make things even more complicated. So, engineers created a workaround with two large blades stacked on top of each other, spinning in opposite directions, which prevented the drone from spinning out of control. As for controlling it, Jinny didn't have a full-blown AI, but it wasn't remote controlled either. NASA uploaded flight plans from Earth, but once the drone took off, it flew itself using onboard sensors and code, basically like a really smart autopilot.

[00:39:56]To stay on course, it watched the ground with a downward-facing camera, kind of like tracking its own shadow as a guide.

[00:40:03]And finally, the result was seen in April 2021 when Jinny lifted off the Martian ground and hovered in place for just 39 seconds. It rose about 10 ft into the air, hovered a bit, spun around a little, and landed safely back on the red dirt. It was short and simple. One small step for a drone, but a huge one for humanity.

[00:40:27]For the next 3 years, the team responsible was testing the limits, flying Jinny further and further. From above, Jinny saw more than the rover could. The drone helped map the terrain, spotted risks like loose sand and sharp rocks, and even found shortcuts for perseverance. It even saved the rover, so to speak, when its photos helped the team reroute the vehicle around a tricky dune.

[00:40:53]Jinny also made snapshots of interesting layered rocks, exactly the kind you'd need when you're searching for ancient life. Basically, once the drone spotted something weird or promising from above, Perseverance would roll over to check it out, and it worked way better than anyone expected. However, in January 2024, Jinny went missing. The drone was supposed to do a short hop, go up, hover, land, easy stuff. But after takeoff, NASA lost contact. For a while, no one knew what had happened. Just silence. A few days later, NASA finally got a weak signal and pulled the flight data. Turns out Jinny flew over a featureless terrain. See, it used its downward-facing camera to track movement, kind of like an optical mouse.

[00:41:45]No texture below meant nothing to lock onto. Mid-flight, the drone got disoriented, tilted, and during landing, one of its blades clipped the ground.

[00:41:56]NASA confirmed it. The rotor was damaged. It will never fly again.

[00:42:01]However, this is not a sad story.

[00:42:06]Even with broken wings, the robot is still useful. After flight 72, NASA gave Jinny new software and a new job, staying powered on and quietly collecting daily data, possibly for the next 20 years. In a way, Jenny has gone from scout to groundbased observer.

[00:42:28]So, what happens next? Well, we wait for 2030 while we make more flying robots.

[00:42:34]The biggest one on the horizon is Dragonfly, a car-sized rotorcraft scheduled to launch in 2028 and land on Titan, one of Saturn's moons.

[00:42:44]Titan has a thick atmosphere and low gravity, a dream environment for a flying drone. Dragonfly will hop from one location to another, searching for life in that icy landscape. It's like Jenny's big cousin, but with nuclear power and a whole moon to explore.

[00:43:03]The project Ingenuity's success is already inspiring NASA to design better Martian helicopters. Some of them could be equipped with grippers to pick up rock samples or even join up with rovers for full-on search and collect operations.

[00:43:18]Thanks to Jenny, what started as a tech demo could one day evolve into a fleet of flying robots crisscrossing the red planet.