Bold new concept from AeroVironment reimagines Mars landings, deploying a six-helicopter swarm mid-air to autonomously scout for resources and future human outposts.
This artist’s concept, released by AeroVironment, shows the proposed Skyfall mission’s deployment structure carrying six autonomous helicopters above the Martian surface. The mission concept, announced July 24, 2025, would have the helicopters fly themselves down to the ground, foregoing a traditional lander. Credit: AeroVironment
In a bold new proposal for exploring the Red Planet, aerospace firm AeroVironment has unveiled “Skyfall,” a mission concept that would ditch the traditional rover and lander in favor of a swarm of six autonomous helicopters. Developed with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the concept aims to dramatically lower the cost and complexity of landing on Mars by leveraging the proven success of the history-making Ingenuity helicopter.
A radical new landing
The mission’s centerpiece is a daring new landing technique its developers have dubbed the “Skyfall maneuver.” For decades, NASA has relied on complex and risky landing systems. The multi-billion-dollar Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, for example, were lowered to the Martian surface by a rocket-powered sky crane that hovered and winched the massive vehicles down on cables — a nerve-wracking procedure famously called the “seven minutes of terror.“
Skyfall proposes a simpler and more elegant solution. Instead of a single, precious lander, an entry capsule would release the six helicopters during its descent through the thin Martian atmosphere. The rotorcraft would then break away and fly themselves down to the surface under their own power.
This maneuver eliminates the need for a heavy landing platform, which is traditionally one of the most expensive and failure-prone components of any Mars mission. It’s a strategy of essentially chucking the drones out and letting them land themselves. This efficiency is key to the mission being ready for a potential 2028 launch.
This concept is a direct evolution of the trailblazing Ingenuity helicopter, which hitched a ride to Mars aboard the Perseverance rover. Ingenuity proved flight was possible by completing 72 flights, acting as an aerial scout that helped its rover companion pick out a safe path. Skyfall scales that idea up, building an entire mission around a fleet of its descendants.
A fleet of martian scouts
Each of the six Skyfall helicopters would operate independently, creating a distributed network of explorers. Fanning out, they could map vast regions of the Martian surface in a fraction of the time it would take a ground-based rover. Their primary mission would be to scout and certify the safest, most resource-rich landing sites for the first human missions to Mars.
To do this, they would be armed with high-resolution cameras and subsurface-penetrating radar to hunt for one of Mars’s most valuable resources: water ice.
This data also serves a critical scientific purpose, aligning with NASA’s guiding exploration strategy to “follow the water.” Anywhere water once flowed is a potential place to find evidence of past life, making these ice deposits prime targets for future scientific missions.
The right tool for the job
Of course, these lightweight helicopters are not a replacement for a full-scale mobile science laboratory like Perseverance. They can’t carry heavy, power-hungry instruments like ovens or mass spectrometers to analyze rock samples on the spot. Instead, their strength lies in speed and breadth.
They are advanced scouts, designed to rapidly survey wide areas and find the specific points of interest where potentially a future, more heavily-equipped rover or human crew could go for a closer look. Skyfall represents a potential paradigm shift in planetary exploration — a faster, more affordable, and resilient approach that could bring humanity’s first footprints on Mars one step closer.
